Christmas Three!
by Hana no Hikari
Summary: It's supposed to be an ordinary morning for Naruto, after he had somewhat gained control of the Kyuubi. But what's this? Two children appeared at his bedside unexpectedly! Space-time jutsu is not child's play after all!
1. Who's being loud, huh?

This fanfic was written for Christmas! And an attempt to get out of me not having ideas for my "Red Thread of Fate"!

It's set in the time after Naruto met Kushina, his mother, during his training to control the Nine-Tails.

Let's just pretend there was a moment of peace after that, neh?

Anyways, here it is!

* * *

**Chapter 1 – Who's being loud, huh?!**

"Minato! Minato-ttebane! Where are we?" He heard a girl's hushed voice say, but he could see that there was urgency in her voice.

_-ttebane? Is this a dream?_

"Ssssssshhhhhh! You're going to wake him up!" He heard a boy's voice next, must be "Minato". "I don't know where we are, but from what I see outside the window, this place looks familiar..."

Naruto Uzumaki finally opened his eyes and rose from his bed like a zombie, and so abruptly that the girl shrieked and jumped in surprise, while "Minato" took out a kunai and positioned himself defensively in front of her. Naruto then turned his head toward the pair in a manner that Kankurou's puppets will be proud of. Well, what? Anyone disturbed from their peaceful slumber would react in the same way.

For a few minutes, nobody spoke; they just looked at each other. Naruto, barely out of his sleepiness, stared at them blankly; "Minato" and the girl fixed their glance on him, calculating what he'll do and taking action as needed.

Naruto slowly turned his head toward the window, only to double take back at the pair and jump upright on his bed; the girl shrieked.

"**OI! WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING IN MY HOUSE-TTEBAYO?! WHO ARE YOU?!**" Naruto pointed an accusatory finger at the pair. He now saw that "Minato" had blonde hair and wore his hair a bit like Ero-sennin, and the girl had long red hair, which she wore with a hairclip to keep her hair from her face.

"Wait, let me ex—" "Minato" tried to calm the teenager, however the girl with her dashed toward Naruto in a flash, and planted her knuckles on his head. "Minato" slapped a hand on his forehead.

"**DON'T BE TOO LOUD-TTEBANE!**"

"**ITTE!**" Naruto screamed in pain when he took the girl's hit, he's surprised that a girl like her could strike him like that (but then again, there's Sakura-chan).

"**LOOK WHO'S 'TOO LOUD', AND RIGHT IN MY HOUSE TOO-TTEBAYO!**" he angrily responded.

"Minato" unlatched the girl from him. He took her aside and whispered calmly to her, "Kushina, please, calm down! He might be able to help us."

_Kushina?_

Then he turned to Naruto and bowed as a sign of apology, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience, uh, nii-san." "Minato" did not know what his name is.

"Please let us introduce ourselves to you, my name is Namikaze Minato, and this is..."

"Uzumaki Kushina," the girl with red hair spoke with an air of arrogance, her eyes closed and arms crossed in front of her.

Naruto's eyes widened at the knowledge of their names. _Tou-chan? Kaa-chan?_

"And you are?" Kushina glared at him, despite his evident puzzlement at the matter.

"Na-Naruto." _Should I—? _"Uzumaki Naruto." He felt his body become limp the moment he said his whole name. Now, he just didn't know what to do. He sat on his bed.

"Are you all right?" Minato walked over to him, worried about his sudden lack of energy after all the ruckus he and Kushina caused so early in the morning.

"Mmm," was all Naruto could respond. What were his mother and father doing here? And they look different. They look like...children, around the age of a chunin.

Meanwhile, Kushina perked up upon hearing his surname.

"Uzumaki?" she placed her hands on his knees and looked him in the face intently. "You must be a relative of mine! I wonder how we're related..." she slacked off when she saw that he looked confused.

The two remained quiet, while Naruto processed his thoughts.

_I guess... I'll just act like I don't know anything about them, at least until I ask for help from Tsunade-baa-chan and Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei._

When he was done, the first thing he thought was _food_. It's supposed to be breakfast after all.

"Anno, are you two hungry?" Naruto inquired.

"No, we just ate—" Minato replied, (he wasn't really, really, really hungry, but he is) and it soon became obvious that he was lying, when Kushina's stomach gurgled loudly. She blushed, and Naruto laughed.

"It seems you two have a problem, let's discuss that over breakfast and see what I can do, neh?" Naruto smiled warmly.

* * *

"I live alone, and I don't know how to cook, so... sorry if these are all I can serve you," Naruto apologetically said, while serving the two children and himself instant ramen and some crackers.

"Ramen! Itadakimasu!" Kushina exclaimed and proceeded to stuff her face with the food served to her. "Anno, do you eat this every day?" Minato asked worriedly while pointing at the steaming cup of instant ramen.

"Uh, yeah," Naruto blushed, embarrassed that his dad found out.

"But this isn't healthy you know, you should try to learn how to cook healthy meals, Naruto-nii" he scolded Naruto, and then he proceeded to eat, "Itadakimasu."

"Hehe," Naruto, ashamed, just grinned and scratched his temple. "By the way, if you thought this place is familiar, that would be because this is Konoha."

"Konoha... How'd you know we're from Konoha?" Kushina questioned him.

Naruto merely tapped her forehead two times and then proceeded to sit and start eating. He said, "Itadakimasu," quietly.

Kushina blushed at her slow poke thinking. Right, they were wearing their forehead protectors that day.

They ate in silence for a while, when Naruto remembered why the pair were here in the first place.

"Oh right, I just remembered, the problem you two have, what happened anyway?" Naruto asked.

Kushina beat Minato to it and said, "Well you see, this idiot here, he was testing this new jutsu he's formulating, when..."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Kushina! Anno, can you go with me to Training Ground 3? I'm going to test the Hiraishin today!" Minato joyfully said.

"B-but, it's just a prototype, right? And worse, you said it was a **space-time ninjutsu**-ttebane! Who knows where we'll end up after this?!" Kushina nervously responded. She really wasn't sure about this, messing with space-time is not the most beautiful thing! She had heard many rumors about people trying to formulate such jutsus and they were never found, no corpse, no clues, nothing! And now...

"Don't worry! I asked Jiraiya-sensei to help me. He'll be with us the whole time. And this time, I'm more certain it's complete!" Minato was undoubtedly hyped.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

_Why did I **ever** agree to this? _Kushina crossed her arms, while watching Minato set up his jutsu, with Jiraiya-sensei standing at the side. _Furthermore, this Ero-sennin... _Kushina glared at the Frog Sage, she just can't believe this man is part of the Legendary Sannin; he indulges in the three shinobi vices!

Jiraiya finally felt Kushina's ominous glare, and nervously smiled and waved at her. Kushina immediately turned her sight on Minato's preparations. Presently he is setting up the special three-pronged kunai he made himself, all of which are marked with the jutsu formula. He stuck the kunai at the three wooden posts present at the Training Ground.

_What did I ever do to her? _Jiraiya thought, because as long as he can remember, he had always respected the little girl since his student Minato holds her dear.

"Done, but one last thing," Minato said as he approached Jiraiya. "Do you mind?" Jiraiya shook his head and Minato marked him with the Hiraishin on his arm.

Meanwhile, Kushina is pondering what Minato and Jiraiya were discussing, when Minato turned to her direction and asked her, "Do you mind?"

"What 'do you mind?'?" Kushina is even more puzzled, "I don't understand, Minato."

"Right, sorry, I'm going to mark you with the Hiraishin, is that okay with you?"

"**WHAT?! I THOUGHT I WAS HERE TO JUST WATCH-TTEBANE!**" Kushina expressed her rage so loudly the birds that inhabited the forest fled. Even Jiraiya who was standing 5 meters away from her had to cover his ears. Minato had to snap his fingers near his ears to make sure he hasn't gone deaf.

"Sorry, Kushina. For me?" Minato winked and put together his palms in front of him, "Please?"

Well, who could resist those puppy-dog, sapphire eyes of his? No one, not even Kushina.

She blushed, then sighed and threw her hands in the air in resignation, and finally consented, "I swear, if something goes wrong here, I'm going to kill you, Namikaze Minato."

Minato chuckled nervously and joked, "That is, if I don't die here first."

Kushina didn't like his joke, not a bit of it at all.

"Okay then, I'm going to start," Minato announced, as he returned to the center of his little group. "Please relax," he said, as he dodged a high-speed rock Kushina threw at him, followed by "**Relax! How? Tell me!**" Jiraiya laughed, and then immediately turned serious.

"Minato, you know this is no ordinary jutsu you're attempting to formulate, so focus your attention, and give it your all," Jiraiya warned his student, "Be careful and good luck."

"Hai!" Minato took a last look at Kushina before forming the hand signs, "Hiraishin no Jutsu!"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"And that's all I can remember!" Kushina exclaimed while finishing the last of her ramen.

"Haha, well apparently, something went wrong with the jutsu, and next I opened my eyes, were both here in your house, Naruto-nii, and Jiraiya-sensei is nowhere to be seen," Minato chuckled.

"**THIS IS NO TIME TO BE LAUGHING-TTEBANE!**" as Kushina made Minato's head the next target of her knuckles.

_They're just like how I imagined them as kids, after what kaa-chan told me when I was training for the control of the Kyuubi..._

"**YOU IDIOT! HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN TO US?! HOW CAN WE—**" Kushina's ranting abruptly stopped when Naruto rested his hand on her shoulder.

"You know, I'm taking you both to Tsunade-baa-chan, and ask for her help."

"Tsunade?" Minato and Kushina asked him simultaneously. "You mean Jiraiya-sensei's former teammate, one of the Legendary Sannin?"

"Uhh yeah, she's the Hokage of this time."

"Hokage!" Minato and Kushina incredulously exclaimed. After a few seconds of silence, Minato spoke up, "It's now clear. Apparently, we're in the future, Kushina." He turned to Naruto and expressed his doubts, "But Jiraiya-sensei said she will never, ever get back to the village."

"Well you see," Naruto began his explanation while he stood up to collect the ramen cups and throw them in the trash, "I was the one who convinced her."

"You did? How?" the pair asked.

"It's a long story actually, and that's not what's important right now. Oh, wait here for a bit, I'll just be changing my clothes, neh? Then we're going," Naruto left the pair at the dining table, fetched some clothes from his modest closet, and went to the bathroom. Well usually he would just strip his pajamas and be in his boxers right in the middle of his room, who cares, but he would not do that in front of his parents. When he was done, he returned to his cute pair of parents and announced, "Let's go!"

* * *

"You mean you mastered the...Rasengan, was it, in just a week to convince her? Just that? Nothing more?" Minato could not believe what Naruto was telling them.

They were now walking toward the HokageTower, the center of the village, near the HokageMountain.

"Uh, yeah, along with other things..." Naruto is used to boasting his "achievements" to others, but yeah, you guessed it, he's not doing that right now because of his parents. Naruto turned his glance on the HokageMountain, at his father's face...

_OH, right I forgot! I'll just wish tou-chan won't notice that the fourth head up there looks like him!_

"Oi, Minato, that fourth head on the Mountain looks like you. Or Ero-sennin."

Naruto could only stare in shock at his mother, who noticed what he was wishing they wouldn't.

"Kushina, don't be silly. That Mountain's for—" Minato was cut short after he took a glimpse on the Mountain.

_OHHHHHHHHH! This is not good! _"HEY! How about we eat for Ichiraku's for a while? Come on let's go! Hehe," Naruto hastily pushed the two kids toward the ramen shop.

"But we just ate ramen, Naruto-nii," Minato planted his feet on the ground, and refused to budge.

_No choice then._

* * *

"**EEEEEEKKK! NARUTO!**" Kushina blared at him, not even bothering with the honorifics and the fact that he is trying to help the two of them. Naruto could feel the whole village look up at their little group, skipping over the rooftops.

Naruto had swooped on the pair the moment Minato refused to go to the ramen shop, so now here they are, him carrying the pair, jumping over houses, and going as fast as he can to the HokageTower to prevent any more questions he just can't answer.

Kushina is trying to wriggle out of his grasp while Minato could see he's trying to hide something.

* * *

"Please wait here a moment, uh, Kushina-chan and... Minato-chan," Naruto told the lost pair. It's the first time he's called them by their names, and with honorifics appropriate for people so much younger than he is at that!

_Why does this have to be so difficult for me? _he sighed as he knocked on the door.

"Come in," came a voice from inside. Must be Shizune-san.

Naruto opened the door slowly, closed it gently, then ran up to Tsunade so suddenly; she almost spat the tea she was drinking.

"Baa-chan, help me! YOU'VE GOT TO HELP ME!"

"W-wait Naruto, I don't understand..." Tsunade is still startled by his urgency, then an answer dawned on her. She suddenly stood up, and said, "You didn't peek in the women's bath, now did you?!" She now exuded a killing intent on him, while she cracked her knuckles.

"NO, NO BAA-CHAN, SSSSHHHHHHH!" Naruto backed away from her desk whilst trying to calm the fuming Hokage. "'They' might get the wrong idea! PLEASE CALM DOWN! Shizune-san, help me here, please?"

Tsunade calmed down quickly (surprisingly), probably because she could sense that Naruto is in a serious (REALLY serious) problem.

"Baa-chan, please, don't shout while I'm in the middle of explaining, or do anything that will alert 'them', ('THEY'RE' OUTSIDE!). You could let your jaw drop, pound the desk, roll on the floor or anything," Naruto pleaded, "But please, nothing that will make 'them' run away!"

"Just who are 'they'?"

Naruto then proceeded to explain, calmly and as quietly as he can. He could see the effort his baa-chan is putting up just not to startle his time-travelling parents outside.

When he was done, Naruto sighed and plopped on the floor, Tsunade drank down her remaining tea (which has gone cold by the way), and Shizune was stroking Tonton to calm herself.

"So...can I bring them in now?" Naruto asked permission from Tsunade.

"Sure, bring it on."

Naruto stuck his head out of the door and called for the pair.

"Hey, she says you can come in now... No, no, nothing's destroyed... Yes I'm fine..." was all Tsunade could hear from the trio's little conversation.

The pair finally walked in. Tsunade's eyes widened in shock, Naruto forgot to mention they were children.

"Ohayou, Tsunade-sama," young Minato bowed before her, whilst pulling Kushina to do the same.

"O-ohayou. Naruto already told me about your problem. Space-time jutsus are a pain to deal with…"

Minato cringed at her reaction.

"See, Tsunade-sama seems to agree with me, Minato," Kushina scoffed at him.

Minato smiled nervously. "So… Do you know how we could get back, Tsunade-sama?"

"Yes, but I believe finding the scroll for it in the Library will take a few days. We will begin soon after that. This happened before with—"

"With whom?" Naruto asked.

"Never mind, you two could go now. Naruto, stay for a while."

* * *

OH~ So who is it?

.

Tell me how was it!

Reviews appreciated!


	2. A week's too short!

There. After racking my brains for this, it's finally out!

.

I'M ABSOLUTELY HAPPY AT THE AMOUNT OF FAVORITES AND FOLLOWS FOR THIS ONE! (though I feel sorry for my other fanfic, 'Red Thread of Fate', looks like they don't like you. *cries forever*)

MINNA-SAN, ARIGATO GOZAIMASU! (though I'm sorry this story can't be finished before Christmas. :'( shame on me for naming this 'Christmas Three!' *cries forever*)

.

Here you go. Please send me a review if you found I missed on something. My brain's not working fine lately.

* * *

**Chapter 2 – A week's too short!**

Just as he was turning back to his baa-chan after seeing his young parents out of the door, Naruto saw Tsunade put on a grim face.

"Naruto," Naruto walked near her desk, she has her chin on her folded hands "Do you understand how serious and complicated this situation is?"

He answered slowly, scratching his cheek, "Uh yeah…a little I guess." He was forced to revise his reply when Tsunade looked intently at him, making him answer with utmost honesty.

Tsunade sighed. Right, she should not have had hope on Naruto comprehending this so easily. Naruto had always been slow on complex things.

"Even I have limited knowledge on this, Naruto, but I'll tell you what I can."

Naruto nodded and settled himself in front of her.

"Things with space-time should not be messed with, because of its consequences on any of the past, present and the future. I almost slipped back there when I mentioned that something like this happened before, it is fortunate I didn't go as far as tell who it is. It was actually your father, Minato, when he was nearing completion and mastery of the jutsu he was famous for, the Hiraishin no Jutsu."

"Tou-chan?"

Tsunade closed her eyes, as if to get a better recollection of the things that happened a few years ago. "Ah. It's a good thing that someone who was present during the course of his training devised a jutsu to bring him safely back, and that jutsu formula is present and safeguarded at the Library. He had told us that the same thing happened back when he was younger, but he can't remember much of the details, but he was sure he also landed in Konoha, so I assumed at that time that it was the future 'us' that helped his younger self. Are you seeing the loop here—eh, Naruto? "

_MOU! I can't understand a single thing!_ True enough, Naruto felt like his brain juices were squeezed out and his brain is currently passing through a steamroller.

"Baa-chan, I… can't… **I CAN'T UNDERSTAND IT-TTEBAYO!** WHY IS THERE NO EASIER EXPLANATION FOR THIS?!"

"I do not understand it fully either. The reason behind why his older self came before his younger self, his form which you see now, I suppose that can be attributed to the hidden workings of time and space."

Tsunade relaxed a bit, and shifted her position.

"Finding the scroll for the jutsu, reviewing how to execute it, and the day itself when the jutsu will be executed; all of those will take a week. We will begin work tomorrow. I shall see to it myself."

_A week. Just a week… _he thought as he looked down on the floor.

Tsunade stood up, and went around her desk to stand in front of Naruto.

"How about them? Where will they be staying for the week?" Naruto asked. He knew stuff like this was left in the care of ANBU, so he didn't hold up much hope that…

Tsunade put a hand on his head, and he looked up.

"I know they're both important to you, so I'm going to assign you to take care of them for the coming week. That will be your mission, Naruto. Don't fail me," she told him as she winked.

Naruto's face brightened as he flashed a smile.

"Thank you, baa-chan." _You don't know how happy I am._

"Now, go. They're waiting for you outside."

Naruto nodded earnestly and strode to the door and closed it behind him.

"Naruto," Tsunade whispered to herself, "Don't waste this chance."

* * *

"Oh, finally you're out," Kushina remarked, "My feet are starting to get tired from waiting out here."

"What did Tsunade-sama tell you?" Minato immediately inquired.

"Oh, stuff and more stuff that I didn't understand. Ah! She said you're going to be staying with me for the rest of the week!" he took both of their hands, "We're going to have fun together!"

* * *

"So where would you two like to go?"

The three were currently walking down one of the main streets that branch out from the HokageTower.

"I guess we should buy clothes, Minato. We brought nothing with us other than our weapon holsters when we…time-travelled," Kushina pointed out.

"Okay than, ka—Kushina-chan. This way!"

Minato saw that there was not much that changed in Konoha. It's almost exactly as he remembers it back from the time they came from.

_Oh, it's this shop, ran by _-san. _he thought when he saw a familiar stall. _This shop wasn't here before._ he thought when he saw a stall that wasn't there at their time.

"Here, here!" Naruto beckoning to the two of them broke Minato's reverie. He heard Naruto greeting the lady shop keeper, and asking her if she sells clothes for young girls and boys. Minato walked in the shop just in time to see the woman nod and smile, and gesture toward a corner of the little shop. Kushina was already there, and browsing the girls' clothes.

"To—," Minato looked up to Naruto, "Minato-chan, look around for clothes you might like. Go on."

"But…" _Isn't this too much? We, as shinobi, can go on a week long mission and not change clothes for the mission's duration, and…_

He smiled, "Don't worry, I'll pay, if that's what your thinking about."

Minato nodded, and proceeded to the boys' corner. He quickly picked out a navy blue hoodie with two yellow stripes down the right sleeve, a white zip jacket with a high collar, a pair of black shirts, and two pairs of comfortable pants. Of course he made sure to check the prices of the items he took.

_!_

While Naruto wasn't looking, he discreetly talked to Kushina.

"Is this okay? I mean, paying for these?"

"Well, Tsunade-sama herself left us to his care, so I guess he wouldn't mind. But now that you mention it, these clothes are **quite** expensive."

Minato sighed, but Kushina smiled at her.

"But since I'm also indebted to him for helping us, not to mention we'll be staying at his place, I'll be taking the clothes that I like with the lowest prices."

"You two done?" Naruto walked over to them. He was just in time to see Kushina pull out a green sleeveless blouse with a black band at the waist, along with a yellow shirt a size too big for her. Already in her arms are two pairs of leggings, one black, and the other pale red.

"That's okay?"

"Hai," they replied.

Naruto took the clothes they selected and headed to the cashier, "All of these please!"

Minato heard the shop owner ask, "Who are these kids, Naruto-kun?" to which Naruto answered, "Oh, they're… friends. Sorry, can't tell you much," while handing his money to her. She nodded and said no more, and handed the items he bought.

When Naruto turned around, he asked them, "Don't you have any more you need?"

They both shook their heads. "It's almost lunch, let's eat!"

Naruto took them to Yakiniku Q. He ordered two sticks of pork barbeque and two cups of rice each for all three of them and just like at the clothes shop, paid for everything they ate.

When they were full and all, and tidied up after eating, they exited and Naruto asked the two of them again, "Don't you have anything more you need?"

_Well… _Minato shook his head almost immediately, while Kushina took a while before answering, "No. Nothing more, Naruto-nii."

"Then, we're going to Sakura-chan."

* * *

Naruto rang the doorbell outside Sakura's residence.

_Haruno Sakura, huh. With the way she talks about her, I bet he likes her. _Kushina snickered to herself. Naruto had told them about the girl named Sakura while they were heading for her house, and Kushina saw that he holds her dear. Minato looked at her worriedly, maybe the pressure of the situation they both are in got into her?

"Hai, hai, just a sec," they heard a girl's voice from inside the house, and then the door opened.

"Hi, Sakura-chan."

"Oh, Naruto," then her gaze fell on the two of them, but she said nothing, "Come in."

They settled in the living room and said their greetings to both Mebuki-san and Kizashi-san.

"Oh, who are these two children, Naruto-kun?" Mebuki asked, delighted at the sight of children.

"They're friends, Mebuki-san," Naruto replied, flashing a smile while scratching his head.

_Why is he acting like he's… caught lying? Hm…_ Kushina's beginning to form suspicions, but she shook it off. _I'm probably thinking too much. I really need to rest. _She smiled.

"Oh, kaa-chan, can they stay for dinner? I'll be cooking, don't worry!" Sakura asked permission from her mother.

"Well, I guess that's okay, for your two little friends over there," Mebuki smiled at the two. "Just keep the house clean."

"Ah, Mebuki-san, do you have extra futons? You see, these two will be staying at my house temporarily, and I don't have futons since I live alone…so…can I borrow one?" Naruto asked.

"Well, sure, we have two extra; you can get the one with the dragonfly pattern. It's large and can fit two. Sakura, give it to them later before they leave, neh?"

"Hai, kaa-chan."

Kizashi was about to speak next, but Sakura cut him out, "Hai, hai, tou-chan, don't you and kaa-chan have something important to do? You're going to attend a Christmas party tonight right? Go on and dress up, neh?" while pushing her parents outside the room.

When the noises in the stairwell died down, Sakura returned to the living room then went to the kitchen for a while to get them all snacks and drinks, but she pulled Naruto along with her.

"So do you think those two are…lovey dovey and such?" Kushina asked Minato.

She saw that Minato was taken aback by with her question, "What are you saying all of a sudden, Kushina? That's absurd."

"Well, what, haven't you noticed it? He's perked up at the sight of her parents. And—"

Minato showed no interest in the topic, so Kushina stopped and they sat in silence for a long time, while listening for signs of the return of Sakura and Naruto.

"Do you think…"

Kushina, sort of surprised that he was the one who broke the silence, looked at Minato who has his head bowed down.

"Do you think we can really get back, safe?"

Kushina would have made fun of him, since he was the one who dragged the both of them in the situation, but it's just the two of them in this together, so…

She held his hands in hers, and smiled, "Just believe… and… don't you dare forget that I'm always here for you."

"OH, LOOKIE!" Kushina dropped Minato's hands abruptly at Sakura's voice. Even Minato was shocked.

At the entrance to the living room stood Naruto, smiling like he's just been given some wonderful news, and Sakura, giggling so hard it was somewhat fortunate that Naruto was the one handling the tray for drinks.

_OH MY! Tch, Naruto-nii must have told her something._

"Oh, please, don't mind us. We'll just be at the kitchen cooking dinner if ever you need us. Don't let us disturb you," Naruto announced, as he placed two glasses of orange juice from the tray he held on the coffee table.

"Mm-hm," Sakura nodded in agreement, as she in turn placed a plate of senbei on the table.

"We're off then!" Naruto and Sakura announced before leaving the room, leaving both Kushina and Minato blushing deep red.

* * *

Mebuki and Kizashi left at about 5pm, Minato and Kushina heard a shriek from the kitchen a bit afterwards and when dinner was ready at around 6, Naruto beckoned the both of them to the dining table. They said "Itadakimasu" and ate the simple meal Naruto and Sakura prepared. After that, Minato and Kushina brought the plates to the sink, Naruto washed the dishes as a sign of thanks for allowing the three of them into Sakura's home (and for the dinner too!) while Sakura tidied the table, after which she went upstairs to get the futon Naruto borrowed.

* * *

_It's kinda good that I can tell Sakura-chan everything about this… I feel like I'm not alone. I hope she didn't get bored at the shopping and eating parts. Sigh._

While they were cooking dinner, he had told Sakura everything that happened since this morning: the appearance of the two, what Tsunade told him about the situation, shopping, eating and such.

_Oh right. _"Thanks a lot, Sakura-chan, for this futon!" _And for listening to me. _"I would never have known how we'll all sleep tonight and for the week to come," Naruto smiled, as he carried one side of the folded futon in his arms.

"No problem, just return them nice and clean, else kaa-chan will get mad at me," Sakura replied, carrying a side of the futon in her arms as well, "And I with you!" she followed up quickly with a scary glint in her eye.

It's already around 8pm, and they're currently heading for Naruto's apartment, with his little parents carrying the bags of clothes they shopped.

"Wait here for a moment, Sakura-chan; I'll clean up for a bit before you get that in. Minato-chan, Kushina-chan, you can drop those at my bed, in my room, then you can take a bath before sleeping," Naruto said as he unlocked the door and turned the lights on.

He let his parents come in, then he flipped the lights on in his room, then he proceeded to picking up the various items of clothing, random empty ramen cups and jutsu scrolls scattered around the floor of his room, and sweeped the floor a little before calling out, "Hey, Sakura-chan, you can put that here now."

Sakura came in and dropped the futon where Naruto pointed on the floor.

"Looks like you've finally learned how to keep your room clean, Naruto. Quite impressive, even for you," Sakura remarked upon seeing his room. She saw that the floor was fairly clean, though not spotless. The room was very orderly, even by Naruto standards.

"Sigh." _If only you knew how messy this room is before I left with kaa-chan and tou-chan this morning. _Naruto gazed with longing towards the two children that are his parents. Minato and Kushina did not seem to notice, however, since they're busy discussing what they would do for the coming week.

He felt Sakura tap his back. He turned his head, and she whispered in his ear, "Don't waste this chance then, so that you will regret nothing in the end."

Then she called out, "Yo, Minato-chan, Kushina-chan, I'm going home now, take care. Jaa ne, oyasumi-nasai."

"Hai, arigato ne, Sakura-nee," Minato replied. "Oyasumi-nasai!" Kushina greeted back.

Naruto saw Sakura out of the door, and afterwards secured it and then proceeded to slump on his bedroom floor.

He gestured toward the bathroom door and said, "There's the bathroom, go ahead and use it," with a slight smile on his face. When he saw the two of them taking out the clothes he bought for them…

"Hey, hey! Don't use those," he walked up to the two, "You won't sleep in those, now would you? Those are for tomorrow." He turned to one of the two cabinets he has in the room, opened a drawer, and took out two pairs of pajamas, too small for a grown boy like him, but just right for Minato and Kushina.

"Here, use these," he gave each of them a pair of the bluish pajamas, "Go ahead and change."

Minato let Kushina change first, so he and Minato were left in the room.

"Anno, Naruto-nii…"

"Eh? What is it, Minato-chan? Do you feel bad?" Naruto asked worriedly.

"Iie. I'm okay. Anno… Arigato ne. For everything."

_I should be the one thanking you, for allowing me to have this chance with you and kaa-chan. _"Oh, that's nothing, I don't mind. You two are always welcome here."

They then sat on the floor for a while in silence, and when Naruto was close to falling asleep where he sat, they heard the bathroom door open, and Kushina announced, "I'm done, Minato your turn."

Minato stood up and gathered the pajamas Naruto gave him and went in the bathroom. Naruto pulled his pajamas from the drawer while waiting for his turn.

"Oi, Naruto-nii, arigato ne. For the food and the clothes... and for allowing us to stay here."

_Now that you mention it, Gama-chan seems to be on the small side suddenly. Doesn't matter though. _"Don't mention it, ka—Kushina-chan," he replied with a smile.

"Ah right, I just remembered."

"Eh? What is it?"

"You mentioned at breakfast that you live alone."

"Yes, I think I said that, yes."

"Why?"

"'Why?' what?" _Oh… I know where this is going._

"Where are your parents?"

_I thought so. I knew one of them would ask._

He frowned infinitesimally at the recollection, "Well, they… died… a long time ago."

_When the Kyuubi attacked the village. My birthday. _

Kushina couldn't help but gasp. "G-gomenasai! I shouldn't have asked."

"Mm," Naruto shrugged and awkwardly laughed. "I kinda expected it…"

He drifted off, and when Naruto's eyes were starting to close from his exhaustion, the bathroom door opened again.

"Finally, my turn. Just a moment neh?"

He stood up and picked up his pajamas, went in the bathroom and closed the door. Then he opened it again, "Right, Kushina-chan, you could sleep in my bed. Minato-chan and I will be sleeping on the futon."

He closed the door again then he stripped his clothes and turned on the shower. The water was cold, but he didn't mind.

_Kind of wakes me up actually._

He stood there for a long while, so long that he was thinking that Minato and Kushina were starting to worry that he'll catch a cold or worse, pneumonia, if he stood in the water for long. When he went out of the bath, with towel in hand to dry his hair, he checked on the two and found them fast asleep. He turned the lights off in the room.

_Sleeping already, huh. Tou-chan even laid out the futon on his own. They must be as tired as I am._

Nonetheless, he headed for the kitchen and turned on the lights, poured hot water into an open ramen cup and ate its contents slowly. He stared into the wall in front of him the whole time. When he was done, he stood up and turned the lights off, and made his way into the bedroom in the dark. It wasn't wholly dark in the room, because the moonlight comes in from the windows, so he had no difficulty in navigating to his place in the futon. He tucked himself in.

_A day. Tomorrow Tsunade-baa-chan will begin preparations for them. _he thought as he gazed beside him, on Minato's sleeping face. _I'm afraid that time will tick quickly starting tomorrow._

_Neh, Kami-sama, please, can you give me more time?_

* * *

Reviews appreciated!


	3. Day 1 (Part I): It's the training!

Happy New Year, minna!

I hope your limbs are still complete and your eyes are fine, so that you can read this!

Here you go!

* * *

**Chapter 3 – Day 1 (Part I): It's the training!**

_"Naruto."_

_"Tou-chan?" He looked up and saw his father smiling at him._

_"Naruto."_

_"Kaa-chan?" His mother, also smiling at him, came to stand by his father._

_He reached out, but no matter how many steps his short legs took, he would never get nearer. The already bright place they're all in, slowly grew even brighter as he got farther. Nonetheless, he went on in pursuance of his parents. No matter what._

"Naruto!" "Naruto-nii!"

His eyelids flew open, and his arms are reaching towards the ceiling.

"Eh?" he asked, more to himself than to the two children kneeling by his head. He was drenched in sweat, but aside from that he now knew he had been crying.

"Oi, Naruto-nii, are you okay?" Kushina asked as Naruto slowly rose from the futon.

"Ah, yeah, just…a bad dream I guess," he replied slowly, while staring outside the window, into the little terrace of his apartment and into the dark sky.

Kushina stared into him, and he could feel she knows he lied a bit. Then she sighed.

"Don't scare us like that next time, please?"

Minato spoke, "You were wailing and grasping the air above you, and we thought it was best to try and wake you up, Naruto-nii. It took a while actually. I was going to fetch the medical team from the hospital if we can't wake you up."

"Ah. Sorry about that," he smiled whilst still having tears streaming down his eyes. He wiped them away. "This would be the last time this would happen, I promise."

_While you're staying with me, at least. I've never had this dream in a long while._

He had dreamed the same dream he had back when he was still a child, back when he still didn't understand why most of the people of the village despised him, or why he didn't have parents. He would wake up, just like this, sweating heavily and with tear-streaked cheeks.

"Well, you won't be sitting there all day, now would you?"

"What?"

"Don't 'What?' me. Get up there, breakfast's ready," Kushina declared, as she disappeared into the kitchen. Minato stood up and chuckled a bit, and looked down on Naruto.

"Naruto-nii, you better get up and keep away the futon," he said, and then his voice dropped to a whisper, "She was real worried back there, you know. She was shaking me like crazy a while ago." He demonstrated and Naruto worked hard to suppress his laughter.

"She was actually willing to get the med team herself," he added as he was leaving for the kitchen.

Naruto grabbed his wrist and smiled, "Arigato ne. Really. Honto ni arigato."

It was Minato's turn to smile.

"OI, YOU TWO, HURRY UP. THE FOOD'S GONNA GET COLD!"

Both of them felt the cold stare Kushina's giving them even through the walls. Minato hurried to the dining table, saying, "Hai, hai, Kushina. No need to get worked up so much so early in the morning," while Naruto scurried out of the futon and fixed it, before folding it and putting it on the neat bed.

_My bed's fixed, must be kaa-chan. _He smiled at the thought.

_I bet it must be his parents. He dreamed about them. _Kushina thought as she bit into the buttered toast she made. Naruto was wailing "kaa-chan" and "tou-chan" while they were trying to wake him up, and she was kind of afraid, no, she was near hystericalthat maybe his dead parents came to take him already.

"Sheesh."

Minato and Naruto turned from their food to her.

"Eh? Kushina, something wrong?" Minato asked.

"Eh? Haha, nothing's wrong, don't mind me," she quickly denied.

"Oh, okay," Naruto said, as they turned back to their toasts.

"Ah! Today we're going to go to the Training Grounds," Minato suddenly said.

"Why is that, Minato-chan? So excited all of a sudden…" Naruto asked with toast in his mouth.

"Such a training freak," Kushina murmured.

"Don't say that, Kushina. I thought you wanted to be a Hokage, too?" Minato frowned.

_That was…_

He then fired up like he was one with Rock Lee and Might Guy, and stood up on his seat and declared, "To become a Hokage, one must go through training!"

_Getting fired up all of a sudden, did he eat something wrong yesterday? _But then again she had seen Minato like this so many times before, while she could see that Naruto was stunned by Minato being so energetic.

Then going back to his ordinary self, "Anno neh, I wasted a day without training so I kinda feel like I need to catch up," scratching the back of his head.

All Naruto could do was nod his head while Kushina shook her head.

"Here's Training Ground 3," Naruto said to the two kids behind him.

"Oh, nothing much has changed. Maybe except that these log posts are more worn out," Kushina mused as she walked by the logs one by one.

"Really?"

"Neh, Naruto-nii, why don't we spar?" Minato challenged.

Naruto turned and saw his tou-chan with his hand on the first log Kushina passed by.

"Eh?" Naruto was about to refuse, since this is his dad after all, the Yondaime Hokage, also known as Konoha's Kiiroi Senko. But then again…

"Sure, Minato-chan, I'll make sure I'll never lose to you," he replied with eyes full of resolution.

Naruto isn't one to back off from a challenge.

"And neither will I," Minato replied with the same resolve.

"Oh, Naruto," a familiar voice came in.

"Oh, hey, Kakashi-sensei!"

"I see you're back from training with the—"

Naruto quickly covered Kakashi's mouth, "Ahehehe, anno, could you two wait here for a while? I'll be talking with Kakashi-sensei for a bit."

The two nodded promptly and Naruto pulled Kakashi away for a while.

_Really, I should have told him earlier. _"Neh, Kakashi-sensei, please don't mention the Kyuubi."

"Oh, don't worry; I wasn't going to mention it. I was just testing how you will react. Seems like my guess was right. They are 'the' kids. Tsunade-sama told me all about it."

_I can't believe he just told me that with that goofy face of his. _Naruto thought incredulously.

"So, that's Kushina-san," Kakashi continued as he looked at the two children, "And sensei when they were younger huh?"

"Ah," Naruto replied in affirmation, "No doubt about it."

Turning back to his "goofy face", as Naruto put it; he turned back to him and said, "I heard he challenged you to a fight."

"Uh, yeah," Naruto blinked.

"Can I fight him instead?"

"Mou, Naruto-nii. Are you scared of me beating you? **HIDING BEHIND YOUR SENSEI!**"

Naruto would not take that insult of his capabilities, "**OF COURSE NOT! I'LL TAKE YOU ON ANYTIME, ANYWHERE-TTEBAYO!**"

_These two… _Kushina sighed at the sight, the two yellow-headed boys bickering and yelling at each other.

"Is he always like this?" Kakashi asked her, referring to Minato.

"Not really. Only when he gets so perked up. What about him," referring to Naruto, "Is he always like that?"

"Most of the time, yeah."

They sighed together.

"**QUIET!**" "**YOU'RE TOO NOISY-TTEBANE!**"

Both of them gave the two boys a knuckle on the head.

"**ITTE!**" they wailed in pain.

"Kakashi-sensei, that hurts!" "Kushina, what was that for?"

"Because you two are being stupid, that's why,"Kushina glared at the two.

"Let's just get this over with, Naruto," Kakashi turned to Minato, "I'm your opponent for today, is that okay with you? You can fight Naruto some other time; he's not worth it anyway."

"Oi, Kakashi-sensei, you—"

"Hai, hai, let's get to the side already, Naruto-nii," Kushina dragged him away.

"Okay then," Minato finally agreed, "Then tomorrow, it's," looking over to Naruto, "you, Naruto-nii."

"Ossu!"

"Let's begin then, shall we?"

"Hai, Kakashi-san."

* * *

That was a short chapter, because I don't know how I'll write the fight scene.

.

Can you guess where I got the chapter's title from? Send me your answers!

Reviews appreciated!


	4. Day 1 (Part II): Chidori!

LOOK A NEW CHAPTER!

**BEFORE YOU SKIP TO IT, READ THIS FIRST!**

Actually, this was already done the day I posted Chapter 3, but after uploading Chapter 3, I got lazy. So I didn't post it. Also to give me time to make Chapter 5.

You know. Just like how animators and manga authors do it.

The flashback Kakashi will be having is based on Naruto Generations: The Tale of Minato Namikaze, in case you don't know.

In addition, I would like to warn you about lame fight scenes. It's just that I don't know how to write stuff like that. I am a peace loving person. *dodges tomatoes and softdrink cups thrown by close friends*

You've been warned.

So here's chapter 4!

* * *

**Chapter 4 – Day 1 (Part II): Chidori!**

_You don't know sensei, but I kinda feel angry because I lost to you that one time. _Kakashi thought as he eyed the young Minato Namikaze. Back when he was younger, together with Nohara Rin and Uchiha Obito, they were assigned under the jounin Minato. He gave them the bell test many times, and Kakashi would work alone and think of all sorts of strategies to get the bells from him. He always failed, for Minato's speed and genius always thwarted his plans. There was one time he had touched one of the bells…

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Kakashi settled himself on a thick tree branch, somewhere where he can get a view of Rin and Obito but out of sight of Minato.

"You're done, Obito," Minato announced when the numerous shuriken he threw caught Obito off guard, thus making him fall of the branch he was positioned on.

_For now I'll let sensei get busy with those two. _he thought as he observed Rin cut a rope and a giant log whooshed by 10 meters from his hiding place and into the branch Minato was standing on. The collision rattled the forest.

Rin ran beside Obito, whispered to him, then he saw him execute the hand signs for Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu and a great fireball launched itself from his mouth, and into the tree Minato jumped off to. The fireball exploded, and Rin and Obito cheered but Kakashi saw a three-pronged kunai hit the tree behind them.

_Not yet. _he thought as he saw Minato, with his back on him, appear in a flash behind his rejoicing team mates. _But he's in position now._

The bells jingled, making the two turn to Minato.

"Almost had me there," he said, as he took his kunai where it was stuck on the tree.

The two were wide-eyed at the feat, and Rin said, "But…Sensei…When did you…", then both sighed in defeat. "Blew it again…" Obito added.

_Now! _Even as Kakashi was silently approaching Minato, his sensei looked around, and in that he knew that he was now looking for him, the only one who didn't make an appearance since the start of the day's bell test.

When Minato was looking the other way, saying, "And now, for the next step…", he threw a shuriken. But he deflected it, as expected.

_Sharp as always. But he's now alert, tsk. _Kakashi thought as he dropped in front of his sensei and thrust his father's tanto at him.

His teammates were stunned by his sudden appearance. "Kakashi!"

"Sensei, today's the day I win," Kakashi announced, whilst trying hard to hit him.

"You've been hiding so long, was that your strategy?" Minato asked, while dodging and parrying his attacks.

The two of them forced their weapons at each other.

Kakashi answered, "No, it would be too hard to fight you while watching over those two…" _Especially that Obito._

Minato's eyes narrowed at his answer, but Kakashi paid no heed and pushed the tanto harder. When they broke off, Kakashi threw a paper bomb at him. Minato jumped off the branch and headed for the ground.

_There! _Kakashi had scattered more paper bombs on the clearing Minato was heading for, and he now activated them. The bombs exploded, seemingly engulfing his sensei, but he's quick enough to throw his marked kunai on the branch he stood on a while ago.

_I'm not done yet! Here you go! _as he threw numerous shuriken from inside the smoke created by the bombs. _From the sound of it, looks like he dodged all of them._ As soon as he threw the last one, he appeared above Minato, stunning him.

"What…" was all Minato could say before he blocked Kakashi's kick. He pushed him away, but came back with his tanto at him. Kakashi punched and kicked at him relentlessly and Minato was forced to put more distance between them.

In midair, Kakashi swung his left foot at Minato, which he blocked, but followed up with his right, which made Minato lean back.

_NOW! _Kakashi thought as the bells were now within reach. He grasped for one of them, but it merely danced on the tip of his fingers.

Minato righted his position and swung his kunai at Kakashi, forcing him to retreat.

"Not bad. But not enough to beat me," his sensei smiled as if in victory.

_Tsk. How about this? _"I'm not through yet!"

Kakashi's Kage Bunshin poofed and disappeared.

"Kage Bunshin…"

Perched on a treetop high above where his sensei stood, was the real Kakashi.

_This isn't complete, but… Now I'll finish this! _he thought as he executed the hand signs for his prototype Chidori. Blue chakra in the form of lightning radiated from his right hand.

"I told you, didn't I?"

_!_

"You can't beat me," then he felt the cold metal of a kunai against his neck.

"Kakashi, you lose."

"N—no. What incredible speed…" _! _He recalled the first thrust he made with his tanto at Minato. His sensei had dodged and went over his back, and with that he…

_The Hiraishin mark. _"That time…"

He shut his eyes and cursed himself for his inability to notice that one time.

_I should have been more careful! Grr… _"I was so close…" as he grasped the leaves on the treetop, pulled them away and stared hard at them, to vent his anger. He was angry at his sensei, but he was even more furious at his lack of ability to keep up with him.

"So close, huh," Minato spoke, as the wind blew and the bells jingled once more.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

_I thought that you finally recognized my abilities at that time you said "So close," but now I understand that I was wrong. And it wasn't _abilities_ that I lacked at that time, but the understanding of the concept of _teamwork_. Had I worked with Obito and Rin, we would have passed that test long ago. It was also that way with Team 7. Nevertheless…_

"I've wanted to fight you."

"Eh? Were you saying something, Kakashi-san?" relaxing his stance a bit.

"Oh? Nothing, just kinda lost in the mysteries of life, is all," putting on a smiling face.

"Better yet, don't mind me, and mind yourself."

Kakashi saw that he stunned the young Minato with the appearance of his Kage Bunshin behind him. Minato had jumped back, away from the two Kakashi's. He savored his reaction.

"So jumpy, aren't we?"

Minato fixed his stance, held up his kunai in front of him, and narrowed his eyes at Kakashi's remark.

_He obviously doesn't like this. Hehe. I'm gonna play around a little, I think._

Kakashi now took out a kunai and charged at Minato.

* * *

"Look at them go... I think Kakashi-sensei is going overboard." Naruto could only gape at the speed the two were fighting. It was as if he was back at the Chunin Exams, during Lee's fight with Gaara. But this time, he could see and follow their movements better, to a certain degree. To an ordinary ninja, it would appear as flashes of yellow and white against the green background of the forest of the training grounds, and sparks from the clash of their kunai.

"Minato can handle that. I'm sure. He'll win this one," Kushina confidently said, without taking her eyes off of the battle.

"Are you sure? Well, I'm going for Kakashi-sensei." _Sure, tou-chan's awesome and all as I knew him all this time, but he's... still young, in that form. Even kaa-chan said he was 'flaky' and stuff. But then again, I'm not too sure about betting on Kakashi-sensei…_

"Let's see about that," Kushina replied with a smile on her face.

* * *

Minato broke off from Kakashi, and both landed on the ground. Kakashi was only slightly tired, while Minato panted heavily.

_Tsk. A little more and I'll..._

He knew he had to finish this quickly, or else he'll lose the match.

"You're hiding something, Minato."

"What—"

"You know full well what I mean."

_The... _"Well then, I could say the same for you. You're holding back, jounin."

Kakashi laughed, "Oh. You knew? I was hoping you wouldn't."

_Speed takes chakra off my body more than I like. _He made a mental note to train more on that aspect with Jiraiya when they get back to their time. His speed's been hailed as something better than most jounin have; however, he tires easily at its use. At best he'll last 10 mins using just speed, after which he'll collapse with exhaustion. There was a time he fainted in training and had to stay in the hospital for two days.

_This is bad. I have to—_

"This is what I've been hiding, Minato."

Minato snapped back to his senses, and saw lightning blue chakra crackle at Kakashi's right hand, only it wasn't crackling, it's... chirping.

"You've spaced out for too long."

* * *

Kakashi charged straight at Minato.

_I'm kinda getting tired of playing around, since he's also playing around with me! I'm gonna finish this!_

Minato didn't move from his position.

When he was just a few feet from ramming the Chidori into Minato's stomach, Minato threw a kunai.

_A last ditch effort. _"That's useless!"

_The kunai will pass through my right, but it won't hit_.

The feet turned to inches quickly.

Then his prediction about the kunai came true.

"Take this!"

Minato disappeared in a flash in front of Kakashi and reappeared on his back, with a kunai poised on his neck.

_It can't be…_

"I wasn't aiming for you; I was waiting for my kunai to pass you. Kakashi-san, you lose."

_"Kakashi, you lose."_

* * *

There you go.

I write bad fighting scenes, and I should feel bad.

Reviews appreciated!


	5. Day 1 (Part III): A crush?

This fanfic's got an image!

And I drew and colored it myself!

Check it here: art/Christmas-Three-344493183

.

As you read this chapter, you shall find that I had nothing better to do.

I just wanted Konohamaru to butt in. XD Sorry if you'll find that this chapter is too shallow for your taste.

So here's Chapter 5!

* * *

**Chapter 5 – Day 1 (Part III): A crush?!**

"Oh. As expected, Minato," Kakashi said as he raised both hands, dispelling the Chidori, admitting defeat.

"Same to you, Kakashi-san," Minato somersaulted off his back and landed lithely on the ground. He bowed immediately, saying, "That was good training. Arigato gozaimasu."

"Don't mention it. Kind of good practice for me as well. I was worrying I'm already getting left behind. Haha," replied Kakashi, with a kind of guilty grin.

_I was impatient yet again. Can't believe I made the same mistake twice._

"Anno, can we train again next time, Kakashi-san?"

"Sure. Anytime."

* * *

Naruto stood dumbfounded, mouth hanging wide open.

_Who would have known that tou-chan could beat Kakashi-sensei at that age?!_

Kushina walked directly in front of him, a smug smile on her face, a hand posed as if asking for something.

_More importantly… _Naruto looked at his kaa-chan's face.

"Time to pay, Naruto-nii."

"Looks like you lost in a bet, Naruto."

Naruto puppet-turned his head toward the familiar voice. _Look who's talking._

"Sigh, Tsunade-baa-chan, you're one to talk. You still lost far more bets than I will in my entire life," then his voice trailed off to, "Legendary Sucker."

The last two words did not miss the Hokage's ears, unfortunately. Tsunade, with fierce eyes, folded her sleeves aside to lunge at Naruto and give him a good noogie. But…

"Tsunade-sama. Checking on these two so soon?" Kakashi said, while walking up to the little group with Minato in tow.

_What a life-saver. _"Oh, Konohamaru. You're here too?"

"How dare you forget about me, kore. I'm your boss after all," Konohamaru declared, cross-armed and not looking at him.

_I will seriously hit you, gaki! _Naruto glared at him and clenched his fist in front of him when he remembered why he hadn't become Chunin, it was because Konohamaru beat him! (But mostly because he hadn't listened to Sakura about listening to the rules Temari was talking about: "No.1: Senjutsu not allowed!")

Tsunade saw this, she coughed to bring the two's attention back to her, "Iie, actually, we're visiting the Memorial, and it so happened you lot are here."

Naruto blinked. _Must be visiting Sarutobi-jiji._

"Ah, right, first things first. Minato-chan, Kushina-chan, this is Konohamaru, Saru—" he was going to say "Sarutobi-jiji's grandson" but Tsunade and Kakashi flashed him cold looks.

"Ahm. Hehe. As I was saying, this _boy_ over here is Konohamaru," stressing the word "boy", Naruto continued. "And Konohamaru, this is Minato-chan and Kushina-chan," Naruto affectionately mention his parents names.

Konohamaru bowed to the two, while the pair bowed to him as well. Naruto noticed that Konohamaru looked a little longer at Kushina.

_What the… _There's definitely something different the way Konohamaru looked at her.

"Ah, right. What brought you and your charges here?" Tsunade inquired.

"Well, t—Minato-chan dragged us here," Naruto said, jerking a thumb toward his father.

Minato grinned and scratched the back of his head, and Kushina said, "He was saying he missed training for a day because of yesterday, Tsunade-sama."

"Haha, like always. So unlike your sensei, aren't you? He's told me all about you…" Tsunade trailed off, with a sad and longing look in her eyes as she gazed on Minato.

_Jiraiya-sensei… _Naruto suddenly felt bad again about that time when he directed hurtful words at her about letting her own teammate go on a dangerous mission… alone. Kakashi had stopped him and said, _"There's no one here who understands her feelings as much as you do."_

_I wish I had been a little more considerate._

"Eh, Tsunade-sama, daijoubu?" Minato worriedly approached Tsunade.

"Ah, oh, it's nothing. It's just that he talks about you a lot, seems like you were his favourite," Tsunade smiled at the child and patted his head.

Minato blushed while Kushina began to tease him, "Oh, looks like we got a teacher's pet here. Oh wait, he's the same one **WHO FAILED HIS OWN JUTSU AND BROUGHT THE TWO OF US HERE-TTEBANE!**" He received a spank on the head.

"Mou, Kushina, I'm sorry okay! It's not like I meant it to happen!" Minato shouted while running around in an effort to dodge Kushina's deadly punches.

Tsunade shook her head and chuckled a little, then engaged Kakashi in a conversation about, well, how crazy and chaotic their world was at present. Naruto laughed at the act his parents are putting up.

"Hahaha…haha…ha…ah…" Naruto's laugh streamed off. He had noticed that Konohamaru had his eyes on… his mother?

Looking sideways at Tsunade and Kakashi, to make sure they were still busy talking, Naruto sneakily approached Konohamaru.

"Oi, Konohamaru."

Without looking up, he replied, "Yes, subordinate?"

_Omae! _But Naruto kept his cool. "Say… do you like her?"

Konohamaru whipped his head around so violently (it is a wonder his neck hadn't snapped) to look at him, "N-no, of-of course not, kore! What are you even talking about?!" Then he looked down as if every ant on the ground suddenly became interesting.

_Oh. He's as red as kaa-chan's hair! Hehe… _

"Tsunade-baa-chan, Kakashi-sensei, we'll be talking a walk for a while. Watch over them for me!" dragging a protesting Konohamaru along.

"Be back soon, Naruto," Kakashi replied.

* * *

"Omae! Why'd you bring me out here, kore?" Konohamaru defiantly screamed.

_Tsk, how'd he even know that I was looking at her, kore!_

Naruto had hooked his arm around his neck, said a quick goodbye to Kakashi and Tsunade, and now here they were, in the trees of the Training Ground. Now, Naruto had his back turned on him. After a few minutes of silence, he spoke.

"Speak up, kid."

"Eh?" _When did the atmosphere become so heavy, kore?_

"**Do.**"

"**You.**"

"**Like her?**" Naruto turned around, cracked his knuckles and gave Konohamaru a menacing look that fathers everywhere who are overprotective of their daughters will be idolizing.

_Kowai. _Konohamaru nervously swallowed. _But lying will be useless. Nothing can be done now, I guess._

* * *

"Hi, were back!" Naruto waved as he approached the group he had left for a while with Konohamaru.

_What took them so long? It's past noon already._

He stopped in front of his parents, and Konohamaru stopped beside him.

"I'll be leaving then, I'm going to catch up on my reading," Kakashi smiled at the incredulous look Naruto gave him and bowed a little at Minato, which he returned with a bow as well. He disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"We're going now, Naruto. Take care of the two of them then," Tsunade said. Minato and Kushina bowed in farewell.

"Konohamaru?" she was surprised the boy hadn't moved even as she turned around to leave.

"I'll be staying with them for a while. I'll go home on my own."

"Okay then, be back before dark," and with that Tsunade went on her way.

Kushina spoke, "Naruto-nii, I'm…" but she did not have to continue because her stomach spoke for itself when it grumbled. She blushed deeply, while the boys laughed at her.

Kushina isn't one to tolerate it though.

_You shall pay._

* * *

"I knew we were in deep trouble the moment you showed the signs of laughter, Naruto-nii!" Minato shouted over to Naruto in front of him.

They were running in a formation, with Naruto up front and Minato at his right and Konohamaru on the other side. Kushina had already chased them halfway around the village, and still showed no signs of stopping. And still Naruto and Konohamaru have time to giggle about it.

_What's wrong with these two? Sigh._ Minato could only look at the two carefree boys in wonder, because it's clear their world's going to end the moment Kushina caught up to them (at least temporarily, until before they had healed from the bruises Kushina will give them). Kushina isn't one to take being shamed so lightly.

"**NARUTO!**" they heard her right behind, "**REMEMBER YOU GOT A DEBT TO PAY! DON'T THINK YOU CAN RUN FROM ME!**"

Minato and Konohamaru smacked straight at Naruto's back.

"Mou, Naruto-nii, stopping so suddenly! Ow…" Minato exasperatedly said as he rubbed his nose.

"Itte! Why'd you stop, kore?" Konohamaru, also rubbing his nose, demanded.

"You heard her, didn't you? Because I have a debt to pay," Naruto turned around to face Kushina.

Kushina dashed up to him, red hair flying around her.

_Kowai. But…_

"Naruto-nii, you—"

"Hai, hai! I owe you right? How about we eat lunch at home?"

"That's not even a payment, we've done that this morning, and that's not what you—"

"What I promised, yes," Naruto turned slightly away from her, crossed his arms and closed his eyes, as if thinking deeply.

_What are you even planning, Naruto-nii?_

Kushina looked at him intently, and the longer he remained quiet, the more impatient she grew.

"I'm saying.,,"

"That?"

"That…"

"What?"

_This is getting too long, Naruto-nii. You better say something good after all that delay._

* * *

Minato. Kushina. Konohamaru. All three are seated at Naruto's dining room. I don't know where Naruto got the seats, for far as I know, there's supposed to be just one chair because he lives alone. But the reason they're here after all the fuss, I can.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"We'll be eating at home because I'm going to buy a take out from Ichiraku Ramen."

Kushina squealed in delight and jumped for Naruto's neck to hug him, and Naruto hugged her happily. Minato and Konohamaru facepalmed.

"After all that delay…" Minato said.

"That's all, kore?" Konohamaru added.

And they both sighed in disbelief.

"BUT!" Naruto leaned back to get a good look at Kushina.

"But?" Kushina asked, pouting at the sound of a condition.

"You're all going to get home ahead of me, I'll be okay buying the ramen alone. Get along with Konohamaru here."

"Well, okay," she smiled brightly.

Kushina and Naruto walked off hand in hand, chanting, "Ramen, ramen, Ichiraku Ramen!" in a sing-song manner, leaving the puzzled boys behind.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Konohamaru and Kushina (surprisingly, but Kushina's in a good mood) have been chatting long since they arrived, while Minato is quiet at one side. They've talking about all sorts of things like "What rank are you now?" and "What's your favorite color?" and "Have you been to Yugakure? I heard the hot springs there are wonderful." It even went to "Is it true that there are giant centipedes in Training Ground 44?" and "Where'd you think Niidaime Hokage gets all the water? I heard he can do water ninjutsu even in a desert."

Minato observed, _Their conversations turn in all sorts of directions, the Academy one moment, Kushina's home in the next, her parents, then—_

"Do you like someone?" Konohamaru suddenly asked, eyes full of enthusiasm.

Kushina stiffed and blushed a deep red and looked away. Minato said something like, "I need a drink," and stood up and walked to the refrigerator to get water. Of course none of the two even noticed.

"Where'd that come from-ttebane..." Kushina said.

"Well? Do you? Just answer the question," Konohamaru pressed.

_Do you? _Minato's thoughts echoed Konohamaru's question. He poured water from the bottle he got from the refrigerator into a glass.

"Well...yes."

Minato's heart skipped a beat.

"He's... Ah! Why are you asking this question anyway? My favorite flower, my favorite color, my favorite food, my favorite everything. It's like—" Kushina stopped midsentence.

Minato clearly heard Konohamaru's gulp, and saw Kushina's facial expression change, even while he isn't looking. Minato drained the water from the glass—

"**I'M BACK-TTEBAYO!**"

Naruto's grand entrance made Konohamaru and Kushina, who has her back from the door, drop from their seats. Minato almost spat out the water he drank but instead, choked on it and coughed violently.

"Woah, you okay?" Naruto asked as he quickly removed his sandals and hurriedly put the take-out ramen on the table to attend to the choking Minato.

"Well, that will be BECAUSE YOU ENTERED SO SUDDENLY WHILE WE'RE SO BUSY ON OUR OWN BUSINESSES-TTEBANE!" Kushina screamed at him.

"Gomen! It's just that I thought you were really hungry already and it wouldn't be nice if I entered calmly and you lot pounced on me. So I decided to surprise you instead."

"Yeah. Right. I get it. Let's just eat. I'm starving."

"Eh?" came Naruto's evidently puzzled reply. Meanwhile, Minato got over his choking.

_So sour all of a sudden. _Minato thought as he sluggishly returned the water bottle in the refrigerator. Though he was done with choking, he wasn't done with the fact that Kushina liked someone else already.

_Just who is the lucky guy?_

Kushina went down to set the table, putting the salt ramen in front of hers, Minato's and Naruto's seats, and the soy ramen in front of Konohamaru. Minato and Naruto went to their respective seats (Look! Now there's 4 seats. Where do those come from?), and when they were seated, the four split their chopsticks and said, "Itadakimasu!"

* * *

_Something's wrong here. _Naruto thought as he slurped his noodles while looking at the three children in front of him one by one. He's not one to observe people closely, but there's nothing to be done with just eating and the deafening silence.

_Konohamaru's leaning awkwardly, away from... kaa-chan? This kid's full of energy usually. And he looks like he's drilling holes on tou-chan by staring._

Kind of like the way Naruto used to glare at Sasuke when his rival gets praise.

_Kaa-chan's even more unusually quiet. She even ignored my stupid "Eh?" reply. Tou-chan's looking like he's so sick, like he caught the flu or something, while he just fought with Kakashi-sensei earlier. Hm... What in the world happened while I was gone?_

When they were done, Kushina tidied the table quietly.

"Neh, Naruto-nii, I'm going to go back to the Training Grounds."

"What? Why? I think it's better if you stay here and rest for a while. You look pale," Naruto said worriedly.

"No, no, I'm fine. Really." Minato replied with a smile when Naruto gave him an unbelieving look. "I'll be back before dinner. I promise."

"Well, okay... Just... don't talk to strangers."

Minato laughed at the parently request, and said goodbye.

"Naruto-nii, I'm going home," Konohamaru approached him.

"Okay, but I'm going with you. Kushina-chan," Naruto called.

"Naruto-nii?" Kushina came from the kitchen.

"Um, watch over the house for me, will you? There's ramen in the cupboard if you want some. And biscuits," Naruto said gently, lest Kushina flared up at him again.

"Okay," but she went towards Naruto's room instead.

_Well, that went better than expected. _But he isn't so sure.

"Let's go."

* * *

_That went worse than expected, _was all Konohamaru thought while walking with Naruto toward the Hokage Residence. What? Obviously Kushina rejected him, he's already grown up to know that much, and...

"What did you do, before I arrived?" Naruto spoke, without change in his pace.

"Well... I... I went too far to ask if Kushina-san liked somebody."

"What?!" Naruto incredulously asked and stopped walking altogether. The shock is so evident on his face.

_Maybe he didn't expect me to have the guts to ask that question._

"Yes, you heard it right. And then one thing led to another, and she knew I have a crush on her, though I didn't really say it aloud."

"That's because—"

Konohamaru held up a hand at Naruto's face to stop him, and continued walking. Naruto still followed him though.

"I know, she told me he likes somebody already. And I already know who it is."

_It's Minato, isn't it?_

"Konohamaru, I..."

"It's okay, Naruto-nii. No need to say sorry. It's not your fault anyway, it was mine. You warned me earlier right?" Konohamaru replied with a tone so sullen you could almost hear tragic music in the background.

"But I..." Naruto reached for him.

* * *

When he turned him around, Naruto saw that his eyes were brimming with tears.

Ah, the pain of heartbreak.

_Well, when I pulled him aside earlier, I warned him already. But then again._

"Konohamaru, no need to cry," _I don't know how to handle this. _"You see, I went through this as well."

"You did?"

"Yes!" _With Sakura-chan._

Konohamaru began to wipe his tears away.

"I'm happy you're handling it well, Konohamaru. You see, there are lots of other girls out there."

_Just don't count kaa-chan or Sakura-chan in them._

"Like?" Konohamaru asked.

"Like... Moegi? I dunno."

Naruto practically rolled in laughter when he saw Konohamaru's reaction. He looked like a cross of someone who just had water come out of his nose and someone who choked on rice.

In between laughs, Naruto said, "Let's...haha...just...get...HAHAHAHA..you home, Konohamaru. Tsunade-baa-chan's going to kill me."

* * *

I know. It's super lame of an idea.

Sorry.

But I wanted to give Naruto's subordinate a chance!

.

Reviews treasured like gold!


	6. Day 1 (Part IV) and Day 2 (Part I)

The title's text field in Manage Stories is too short. Full title's below.

And let me remind you that this story is intended to be set the week before Christmas, hence the title.

But I can't finish it before Dec. 25, 2012, so I'm just refreshing your memory, minna! :D

.

Because it is our beloved Yondaime Hokage and Konoha's Kiiroi Senko Namikaze Minato's birthday today, January 25, here's an extra long chapter!

* * *

**Chapter 6 – Day 1 (Part IV) and Day 2 (Part I): Kega wa nai?**

After walking Konohamaru home, Naruto started to head home but stopped.

_Oh right. Dinner._

He headed back to the shopping area of the village to buy food.

_I don't want to bother kaa-chan after what happened today._

* * *

Meanwhile, Minato is back at the Training Ground 3, just as he promised. His knuckles are currently bleeding, and some of the wounds are beginning to form clots. He's currently aimless, running around the Training Ground's forest, shadow fighting and practicing footwork, but he's going nowhere in particular. From his sniffs you'll be able to know he had been _crying_.

_Crying... Rule number 25: Shinobi must never show emotion. Haha. Oh, right. That's wrong, sorry. I don't even believe in that kind of rule. Why did I even think about that? That's not even... Just because she likes somebody already. But..._

His thoughts were a complete mess.

He stopped on a tree branch, wiping the flowing tears fogging his vision. Then he turned to the tree trunk and punched it over and over, he stopped only when his knuckles began to bleed again. Then he continued running off with his famed speed.

* * *

"Tadaima!" Naruto announced when he arrived home.

"Okaerinasai," Kushina answered shortly after Naruto stepped in.

"Minato-chan's not back yet?"

"No. Not yet, but he'll be fine," Kushina smiled, her sour mood from earlier seemingly gone.

"Oh well, I trust that he'll be back."

He set down the food he bought a while ago.

"What's this?"

"Dinner. Rice and fish. Eat already if you'd like," Naruto smiled, before turning to his room. "Oh right. You're okay now?"

"Yes. Would you like me to add miso soup to this?"

"Eh? Ah, no, I wouldn't like to trouble you, ka—Kushina-chan," Naruto hurriedly said, "But if you'd like to, I guess there's no stopping you."

He smiled and proceeded to his room and closed the door.

* * *

"Naruto! Naruto-nii! Come on, wake up!"

Naruto didn't know he'd fallen asleep. What he remembered was he changed into a grey t-shirt, the Uzushio crest behind it, and shorts, then laid down on his bed and hummed "Naruto Ondo", a song he'd done with Sakura-chan and Shikamaru a long time ago, to himself.

_I must be so tired to fall asleep. But I've done nothing all day!_

"Hnn, what's wrong ka—Kushina-chan?" Naruto groggily asked.

"It's Minato. It's past midnight and he hasn't returned yet," Kushina replied urgently.

"**WHAT?!**"

* * *

The moment Kushina said Minato hasn't returned yet, Naruto had jumped off of bed and hurriedly wore his orange jacket and said...

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"I'll go and look for him."

"I want to go!" Kushina said.

He turned and firmly said, "No, I want you to stay here," his eyes steely and tone commanding, "It won't help if you'd get lost too."

Kushina was hurt at the reply.

"Oh... okay."

She was about to return to Naruto's room when Naruto's hand rest upon her shoulder. She turned around, eyes on the floor.

"Sorry, ka—Kushina-chan. Really. It's just that I don't want to lose the both of you. You're both...important to me," Naruto told her with a solemn look.

Kushina looked up to his eyes and saw the sincerity in them.

"Not just because Tsunade-baa-chan assigned the two of you in my care. It's much, much more than that," Naruto continued, with emphasis on the last sentence.

Then he smiled, "I promise I'll bring him back."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Kushina sighed. There's nothing she can do but wait.

_Oh right. The food... _

Kushina ate in silence in the cold house.

* * *

"Kagebunshin no Jutsu!" where there was one Naruto, a thousand now stood. Each wore his standard orange jacket, with a pale blue shirt and just shorts. That was all he wore when he left his house.

"Listen up! We gotta find tou—," the Naruto who's speaking got his mouth covered by a dozen of his clones, one of them mutttering 'Someone might hear us you know!', "Ehem...Minato before daybreak, is that clear?!"

"OSSU!" the others answered him.

"Move quietly, okay! The villagers are probably asleep right now, and we don't want to alert them. Okay? Move!"

The Narutos broke up, each in a separate direction.

"Minato!"

"Are you here?"

"Where are you?"

"Have you eaten your dinner yet?"

"You promised us!"

"Kushina's worried-ttebayo!"

"We're worried-ttebayo!"

"What's wrong?"

"Come out now, please?"

Each shadow clone searched every corner of the village. The numbers alerted the ANBU, but that was settled when the situation was explained to them. They even offered to help.

_OH! Tou-chan, where are you? Tsunade-baa-chan, Kakashi-sensei and most of all, kaa-chan will kill me if I can't find you! And I... I'm **WORRIED-TTEBAYO!**_

An hour passed.

"Did you find him?"

"No..."

"I didn't either..."

"Split up!"

Two hours passed.

"Nothing?"

"Sorry Naruto, we haven't found him yet, but we'll notify one of your clones when we do."

"Thank you."

Another three hours passed.

_The sun will be rising soon._

"So?"

"Sorry."

"Still nothing, Naruto. You should get home and get rest. You've been searching for 5 hours straight now. We'll be informing you first thing," the ANBU leader said. He had noticed that where there were a thousand clones at midnight, fifty only remained.

"But I... he's important—"

"If he's important to you, you should get home and rest. Continue searching later. Isn't it that Kushina-san is waiting for you as well?"

Naruto was stunned. _Right. How could I have forgotten?_

"Okay... Please, tell me first when you find him."

The ANBU leader looked at his subordinates, and each nodded. "Yes."

"Thank you."

The sky has brightened, but the dark clouds seem to negate it.

* * *

The door creaked open.

_Naruto-nii!_

"Naruto-nii! Mi—," she stopped when she noticed Minato's not with him. "Where is he?"

Naruto ran to hug her, and sobbed like a child, stunning Kushina at the sudden action.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. We didn't find him. Yet. I..."

Kushina could feel her own tears coming and fought them back.

_We're going to find him. I swear._

The truth is she's worried sick. Minato had never been like this. He fulfilled his promises, and if ever he broke them, there would be a very good reason.

Kushina struggled to convince the sobbing Naruto to move to the futon she laid out while waiting, and he slept for a couple of hours. After that, he was up and about again. The first thing he said was, "Did the ANBU come?"

Kushina made him eat the food he bought and the miso soup she cooked up last night, all of which she reheated when Naruto woke up. Then he was ready to set out to look for Minato again.

"I'm coming, and this time, you won't stop me," Kushina declared.

Naruto nodded. It won't help if he argued about it anyway. And they set out.

* * *

First, to the Hokage. As much as he doesn't like to inform Tsunade about this, he needs to. Actually, maybe the ANBU already told her, first thing in the morning.

_I'm going to get it. Big time. But I think I deserve it, for letting him go alone._

He knocked on the door, the door he eagerly walked out of yesterday.

"Come in." _Tsunade-baa-chan._

Naruto and Kushina walked in and closed the door. Naruto was expecting to receive the fury of the Hokage the moment he entered, but was surprised to see Kakashi and Sakura standing in front of her desk, though it didn't show on his face.

"Kakashi-sensei. Sakura-chan," he spoke monotonously.

"We heard what happened, Naruto," Sakura was the one to speak.

Now it's her shishou's turn to talk, "I am already informed of what happened. Minato went missing last afternoon. Could you tell us how that happened?"

"After lunch, he went back to the Training Grounds alone, but he promised to come back before dinner. Even so, I was the one who allowed him to go alone. It's my fault."

Tsunade sighed. "I've sent out ANBU again after they reported to me this morning. You could go home and rest some more," she narrowed her eyes, as if seeing through him, "You don't want to suffer from chakra depletion and be knocked out for days on end, now do you?"

_Tsk, even that? _Naruto knows he doesn't feel all too well after pulling an all-nighter looking for his young father. Even his large chakra reserves, made even larger after gaining control of the Kyuubi, is lower than normal.

"I don't care. Even if I die from chakra exhaustion. What matters is that I know that I tried and gave everything I got."

Tsunade closed her eyes and smiled to herself.

"Tsunade-sama thought so," Kakashi said.

"Sakura," Tsunade signalled to her student.

"Hai!" Sakura replied in affirmation. She walked over to Naruto, held her palms over his chest and healing chakra emanated from her palms. The effect was immediate.

_It's... refreshing... like I slept well, and ate well..._

When she was done, she kneeled in front of Kushina and did the same.

"Don't worry, Kushina-chan. We'll find him. You'll be able to see him again, neh?"

Kushina nodded and a tear or two rolled on her cheeks. Sakura wiped them away.

Sakura stood up when she finished, then Tsunade spoke, "Kakashi and Sakura will be going with the two of you. Take these with you," she motioned for Shizune to lay out the intercoms earpieces, "I want Minato back before nightfall. Understood?"

"Hai!" they answered in unison.

* * *

_"Kushina!" Minato shouted out her name in horror_

_ She was laying on the ground, her blood spreading, even redder than her hair. To top that, there was a huge circular gash through her body._

_"Kushina! Kushina, hang on! I'm going to bring you to the hospital. You'll be fine," Minato tried to assure her. The truth is he's sure he's going to lose her._

_Kushina smiled at him. So beautiful, but it pains Minato to see it now._

You! I'm going to get you for this! You swore...you swore you'll keep her safe! _Minato thought, cursing the faceless man in his memory. The one that Kushina had loved._

_"Minato," Kushina struggled to speak, blood filling her mouth, "I..."_

_Minato struggled to hear what she's saying. But he couldn't. Though he paid every inch of his attention on her lips, he can't read them. No matter how he strained his eyes and ears, honed with the numerous missions he had went through. The moment she spoke the last word, her head slacked off, her body went still._

_She's gone._

_"Kushina... Kushina, come on, don't you die on me!" Minato pleaded, but he knew it was useless._

_His cry pierced the dark silent forest, "**KUSHINA!**"_

* * *

_Minato, just where in the world are you-ttebane? _Kushina racked her brains as to where Minato might have gone. She's currently behind Naruto (Or his shadow clone, whatever, doesn't really matter), jumping over the rooftops to get a bird's-eye view over the streets. They're at one of the main roads heading toward the HokageTower.

He said yesterday he was going to return to the Training Grounds, but Naruto said that his shadow clones went over that part, for like, a hundred times. Scratch that, tens of thousands of times, because that was where Minato promised he'll be so he looked specifically in that area. Moreover, Naruto had searched practically everywhere in the village, he passed by all the residences of all the clans of Konoha, even the ruined Uchihas', but found nothing. In addition, Kakashi and Sakura are also looking, and the ANBU are all over the village, some were even sent outside to the surrounding forests. But still Kushina is uneasy about it. Suddenly...

_What... but...I can feel it, I think I know where you are._

"Naruto-nii."

"Hm?" Naruto stopped on a water tank, on which Kushina also halted.

"We're going back to the Training Ground 3."

* * *

_Training Ground 3? But I looked all over the place already, since tou-chan said he will be there._

"Please, Naruto-nii. If you won't come with me, I'll go alone."

_But I guess there's a really special bond between them, so I'll trust kaa-chan, neh?_

"No, of course not, I'm coming."

They darted off to the Training Ground, faster now for they had an aim.

They stopped in front of the three log posts, where they had been yesterday. Kushina promptly walked over the posts. She double taked on one and narrowed her eyes.

"Look."

Naruto jogged over to her and looked where she pointed. He saw a fading Hiraishin mark.

"He's been here. Considering that this mark hasn't disappeared yet, it may be because he doesn't want to dispel it yet, maybe he used it as he trained yesterday afternoon."

Naruto nodded. He hadn't noticed that mark.

"Let's go," Kushina motioned into the forest, and sprinted off. Naruto followed immediately.

_It's amazing how kaa-chan's handling this. So calm and collected, while I'm on the edge here. But, tou-chan, where are you?_

* * *

Kushina stopped on a few trees every after some length, seemingly following a trail. After two hours of intent searching, they both noticed that they've just been going around and around the forest.

_We need to hurry. Minato is..._

What Kushina told to Naruto was a half-truth. Yes, Minato might not have wanted to dispel the mark, but along with that is the fact that it's fading, indication that Minato is running out of chakra.

_Tsk... Hang on, Minato._

Every tree with the mark, she stopped on, and each mark had varying degrees of fading. If she can find the most visible one...

"Here!" Kushina exclaimed, prompting Naruto to rush to her.

"What is it?"

"This is the freshest mark I've stopped upon. Minato's near."

She jumped off the tree, saying, "Naruto-nii, stay up there. Look for him there. I'll be covering the ground."

That's how they went, Kushina on the ground, but still leading Naruto, who's up in the treetops.

It's nearing noon.

After half an hour...

Kushina suddenly halted.

"What is it, Kushina—" Naruto stopped as well, and directed his line of sight to where she was staring.

Naruto dropped to the ground to get a good look. At first it looked like a bundle of random leaves and sticks, but when he looked hard enough...the pile was quivering.

"No way…" Naruto couldn't believe he missed this last night.

"Minato! Minato!" Kushina called out as she hurried to his location. He laid by a tree, curled up into a ball, piled about him a bunch of dried leaves.

Though Konoha doesn't often experience snow during winter, it still gets icy cold because of the wind blowing in from the sea, far away yes, but when it hits the Hokage Mountain, it sort of backflips back into the village.

"Baka! How could you even stay warm in this? You could just have come home!" Kushina talked to him and tried to wake him up.

Then she saw that he was shaking. No. _Convulsing_ will be the right word.

"Naruto, he's…"

Naruto seeing the situation, contacted Sakura through the intercom.

"I've called Sakura-chan. She's pretty near here, she'll be here soon. For now let's try and carry him where we'll be easily reached," Naruto said calmly.

_Minato…_

When she pulled his arm to try and carry him, she saw his knuckles. She gasped.

_What have you been doing-ttebane! You...You've got so much explanation to do, anata no baka! _was all Kushina thought when she saw it. The skin is peeled, there's dried blood, and it's dirty with forest debris. Goodness, it looks so bad it could get infected if it still hadn't.

Him going missing, she could take, but these are too much. She's on the verge of tears.

"Stay strong. For him?" Naruto smiled, as he took Minato from her to carry him on his back.

In spite of the situation, his smile seemed to alleviate some of her pain.

* * *

"We should be fine here."

They're back at the three log posts. Naruto set Minato down carefully, and Kushina kneeled to cradle his head.

"Won't you get a cold like that, Naruto-nii?" Kushina worriedly asked.

Naruto had removed his orange jacket and wrapped it around Minato, in an attempt to keep him warm and do something to keep his condition from getting worse. He's only wearing his mesh shirt and orange pants.

"I'll be fine! Worry about to—Minato-chan," he smiled a little to reassure her.

He only looks calm and all, but the truth is his hands and feet are ice cold. And no, it's not because of the weather. It's...

_We finally found him. But in this condition! I shouldn't have let him go! _Naruto thought angrily as he clenched his fists until his fingernails dug in his palm.

"Naruto!"

Naruto whipped his head around to the source of the voice.

"Where is he?"

"Sakura-chan, hurry! He's…" Naruto motioned to Minato, who's still convulsing.

This alarmed her, and she quickly set to work, kneeling beside him and trying to comfort the trembling Kushina.

Naruto looked on with a pained expression as Sakura hovered her palms over Minato's torso, simultaneously looking for visible physical injury and applying medical chakra where it's neccessary.

"What the…"

"What is it, Sakura-chan? Tell me!"

"What in the world happened to him to get him to this state?" Sakura said, more to herself. Then she turned to Naruto, "I've applied first aid, but he still needs to get to the hospital. Quickly!"

Naruto swiftly but carefully lifted his sick, young father off the ground, held him in his arms, and followed Sakura immediately, Kushina not far behind. He pumped chakra to his feet to boost his speed.

Naruto looked at Minato's tormented expression.

_Tou-chan, hang on! You're not the Yondaime Hokage and Konoha's Kiiroi Senko for nothing right? You're much, much better than this! You want to see kaa-chan again right? Come back to us...please..._

_Kami-sama, please help him through this…_

* * *

_Chakra exhaustion? Not just that, it's near empty. That's even worse with that time I trained with Ero-sennin and he threw me off a ravine!_

True. It was far worse. Because Naruto had the Kyuubi sealed in him, he still survived even while his own chakra's depleted.

Tsunade had come to the hospital to attend to Minato herself, with the help of Sakura. Currently they're in the emergency room tending to him. Naruto and Kushina sat side by side, Kakashi, who came in a little while after Minato's been rushed to the emergency room, standing on one side. They've been quiet ever since they arrived. Kakashi shuffled on his position occassionally, while Kushina slipped in and out of sobbing, and Naruto had to comfort her every time.

_I've got to be strong, for the both of them._

They heard the double doors of the emergency room open.

_Finally._

* * *

Tsunade and Sakura walked out, discussing something, but somehow they looked relieved compared to when they entered that room.

"Naruto, Kushina," Tsunade spoke.

"Hai," both answered. Naruto rose up from his seat.

"He's safe now," she smiled a little.

Kushina smiled for the first time, but her expression settled into that of seriousness.

"What happened to him, Tsunade-sama?" Kushina inquired.

"It's a dangerous case of chakra exhaustion, and there were wounds on his hand, particularly on his knuckles. We also found bruises all over his body. We believe he got it when he's beginning to lose consciousness, and started to bump on objects. His chakra levels are stable now, and his hands are okay too, good thing they didn't get infected, but he won't be able to use them for a day. It seems that the fit was because he isn't used to have his chakra drained like this, or it left his body faster that he could cope with, lumped in with the fact he stayed out all night in the cold weather of the season."

_I thought so. Anata no baka…_ Kushina thought as she set her eyes on the floor.

"Why that happened is what I don't know. He doesn't seem to have been attacked or something along those lines. I guess you'll have to ask him."

"Okay…"

"Anno, when will he be able to get out?" Naruto asked.

Tsunade gazed at him a while before answering, "He can go home tomorrow if he's responding fine."

Naruto sighed.

"Can we see him now?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes, after he's transferred to one of the rooms. We'll be going then."

And so they went, with Sakura giving Naruto and Kushina a tap on the shoulder each.

* * *

There you go! A jelly-jealous Minato!

Sorry that was kind of depressing or something, but I finished this one while simultaneously making a formal report for college. T.T

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Tell me what you thought about the nightmare part! Was it okay? Was it nightmarish?

That was based off the scene where Minato and Kushina shielded Naruto from Kurama's claws.

Basically, Minato here had a foreboding dream.

I love seeing reviews. Send me one!


	7. Day 2 (Part II): He's jealous?

I've updated the chapters to correct grammar mistakes and fix things and be more accurate.

You can go back to them if you'd like.

**BEFORE YOU SCROLL DOWN, READ THIS FIRST.**

In this chapter I'll be having you review Naruto Chapter 503: Minato's Shiki Fuujin, Minato's reaction when Kushina said to him:

"Like, if I try to imagine surviving, and the three of us...living together... I can't think of anything beyond 'I'd be so happy'."

**STARE ON THAT FACE OF MINATO'S AND ENGRAVE IT ON YOUR MEMORY.**

That's the kind of pout I want you to imagine the moment you see [pouted*] on this chapter.

Okay?

So here's Chapter 7!

* * *

**Chapter 7 – Day 2 (Part II): He's jealous?!**

_?_

"He's waking up."

At first, the young Minato, now in a hospital gown, could only see blurs of orange, yellow, red and grey hovering over him when he opened his eyes. It took him a lot of time to blink and try to get his vision to clear up, because he felt there's something pounding on his head. After a while, he finally saw Naruto's, Kushina's and Kakashi's forms by his bedside.

He tried to speak with his dry throat. It came out low and hoarse, almost a whisper.

"Where…"

"You're in the hospital, t—to—Minato-chan," Naruto stammered.

_Relief… and worry?_

"Sorry…" was what Minato managed to get out, before coughing dryly.

"**SORRY?! That's—mfmddf**," was what Kushina could lash out before Naruto covered her mouth.

Ah, the girl he treasured so much.

_Who's the lucky guy?_

"Yo, Minato," Kakashi leaned on him and greeted him with a smile, as if nothing bad happened to him. He also handed him a glass of water.

He sat up, helped by Naruto and a pouting Kushina, took the glass and gulped it immediately.

"Considering you've been diagnosed with chakra exhaustion, it's a surprise you're up already. Anyways, stay put and recover."

He leaned back and said, "I'll be going then, is that okay? Naruto, Kushina? I got some things to fix today."

"Okay… Thank you Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi jumped out of the window, leaving Naruto gaping at the method by which he left.

"Mou! The door's just over here, you know," he said as he closed the window to prevent the cold wind from getting in.

"Minato, why didn't you come back?" Kushina asked, "You promised!"

He turned to her, but looked with unfocused eyes, as if staring through her. He didn't answer.

_I'm glad that horrible dream is over…_

He had dreamed the same dream over and over again, during the last…

_Hours? Days? I couldn't remember. _

Kushina with a gaping hole right through her.

Kushina smiling at him, even through the blood gushing from her mouth.

_It's just…_

"Minato, are you all right? Just say so and I'll call the med," Kushina asked, suddenly gentler from when she first spoke when he woke up, as she reached out a hand to wipe the tears he hadn't noticed had rolled on his cheeks.

Minato shunned her hand, his expression blank and turned his head toward the window.

Dark skies.

"I'm okay."

* * *

_Lie. That's the biggest, fattest lie, ever._

Kushina retreated her hand by her side.

"I'm just… going to get your food."

"Ah, Kushina-chan, let me—"

She closed the door before Naruto could even say that he'll be the one to get the food.

_Why? Going missing on us, then acting like that. Why-ttebane?_

She clenched her fists, increasing her pace into a stride toward the hospital's kitchen.

* * *

Naruto had seen how Minato turned away from Kushina. He noticed that it's unusual for him to act like this, even though he has only been with his young parents for just a few days so far.

_Why?_

"Minato-chan."

Minato turned his head to him, as Naruto sat by his bedside. Naruto thought of how he would ask him for a while.

"What happened? When you… didn't come back before dinner, like you promised."

Minato kept silent and stared at the wall.

Naruto narrowed his eyes in sadness and confusion. Then he stumbled on a thought.

_That time, with Konohamaru!_

"You're hurt, aren't you? Here?" Naruto tapped Minato's chest.

Naruto smiled gently as Minato pouted*.

_I thought so. He looks just like kaa-chan told me, before tou-chan made the decision to seal the Kyuubi in me. _he relished the memory.

_Who knew the Yondaime would be so hurt as to run away from us?_

"You can tell me."

"…"

"I thought you said you trust me," Naruto faked a frown.

Minato gripped the hospital blanket and looked down on his injured hand.

Naruto waited.

"I…" Minato finally began after a few minutes, "Yesterday… she said that she…she likes somebody already. I… don't know, but I…I just wanted to run away after that."

Naruto laughed aloud at that. He didn't even make an effort to suppress it. Minato shot a glare at him, whilst blushing deeply.

"Sorry! Haha!" Naruto, still laughing, "It's just that it's a surprise you don't know yet!"

"Know what?"

"The one she likes!"

"What…"

"Listen, the one she likes is…"

Minato listened closely.

* * *

"**I'M BACK-TTEBANE!**" Kushina slid the door so suddenly and with such force it's a wonder that it didn't come off right there and there.

Kushina had come back from the kitchen with the food trolley, a steaming bowl of okayu on it. She heard Naruto laughing when she stopped by the door.

_He must have started talking._

And when it came to the part Naruto said "The one she likes is…", she decided it was time for her to stop him from babbling.

Gripping Minato by his hospital gown collar, she blared at him, "**ANATA!** **YOU REFUSE TO EXPLAIN TO ME WHY YOU DIDN'T COME HOME LAST NIGHT, THEN HERE YOU ARE, TALKING WITH HIM,**" she jerked her finger at Naruto, who went off the bed the moment Kushina charged at them, "**ABOUT— **" she stopped to think of another word, "**THINGS!**"

_Almost brought the topic back to that. Phew._

Minato just blinked at her.

"**You**—"

She was about to give him another round of shouting, and maybe a good knuckle to the head too, but Naruto held her arm.

"Kushina-chan," Naruto smiled, "The food you brought, you left it outside. It's gonna get cold."

_Right._

"Tsk," Kushina unlatched her hand from Minato's hospital gown, and stomped her way outside the room to push in the food trolley, closed the door, brought the trolley beside his bed, murmuring, "Here's your food," without looking at him. Then she sat on the couch provided in the room.

_Anata no baka-ttebane!_

* * *

Since Minato can't feed himself, with his bandaged hands and all, and Kushina obviously doesn't want to do it, Naruto sighed and took the bowl to feed his tou-chan. He returned to where he sat on the bed a while ago.

"Mattaku," he said to himself. He scooped a spoonful of okayu, blowed on it to cool it a bit, before offering it for Minato to eat.

_It's quiet._

Minato ate the food offered, and savoured its plain taste (he didn't eat dinner last night and breakfast today after all) before swallowing it.

_Too quiet._

"You two aren't going to stay like this for the rest of the week, are you?" Naruto finally said, after the monotony of feeding Minato and the silence of the room.

Still, no one answered, the long silence making him wonder if he really spoke aloud just now.

_Enough. **THE SILENCE IS KILLING ME-TTEBAYO!**_

"MOU!" Naruto abruptly stood up, unempty bowl in hand.

It made Minato blink at the sudden disappearance of his feeder.

"Naruto-nii..." he softly said, as if pleading to stop him from going.

However, Naruto didn't stop and gave the bowl to Kushina, who was stunned at the rough action, and left the room.

Silence.

* * *

It was like that for the next fifteen minutes.

"Minato—" "Kushina—"

They both stopped at the mention of each other's names. They waited.

Kushina, stood up with Minato's food bowl in hand, "I..."

"I..." Minato leaned forward, as much as his body allowed.

"Why don't you speak first-ttebane?!" "You first."

Stare-down competition.

"Fine," Minato said after another five minutes. Kushina sat again on the couch.

"Sorry that I ran away, even though I promised I'll be back."

"Why?! It's not like you to run off like that-ttebane! **WE WERE WORRIED!**"

Minato looked at his bandaged hands for a minute and whispered, "Because you said you liked somebody already."

_The faceless man I cursed in my nightmares. Who is he? I'd like to know... the one you love?_

She didn't catch what he murmured, so…

"Eh?" Kushina said, in a mocking tone, "I can't hear you. Come again?"

He blushed uneasily.

"You like somebody already," Minato repeated in a tone louder than the last, but only by a few decibels.

Still, she can't hear what he said from where she sat on the couch.

"**WHAAAAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU~~~**" Kushina said, cupping her hand on her ear turned to Minato. "Mattaku, have you gone mute or something? Did your tongue—"

"**I SAID I RAN BECAUSE YOU SAID YOU LIKED SOMEBODY ALREADY!**"

**_THERE I SAID IT! _**he thought as he blushed an even deeper red and bored holes on the hospital bedsheet by staring.

Meanwhile, Kushina stood in shock, she almost dropped the food bowl from his revelation.

"You're joking, aren't you?"

"No I'm not," he hissed, still staring at the bedsheet, wringing and unwringing it in his hands.

"So that's why!" then she bent over with her "crude" laugh, as Naruto put it when he first met his mother.

Minato blushed even more, a little bit more and there'll be steam coming out of his ears. Nonetheless, he waited patiently for Kushina to stop laughing at his reason. Then she started to cry, still laughing.

"Kushina! You okay?" Minato worriedly asked, because he taught she'd gone mad.

If he was in any right condition, he'd probably stood up and went over to her. But he can't. When she finally stopped, she wiped away her tears and chuckled some more. There's a hint of red on her cheeks.

Then she walked over to him, set the bowl on the trolley, and asked, "Why? Do you know who he is, for you to be jealous like that?"

He's stunned at the question.

"I'm not…" _Jealous… _"N—no—"

He couldn't say anymore after he was engulfed in Kushina's warm hug.

_You're really an idiot aren't you? _

"It was you," she whispered in his ear.

"Me?" Minato dumbly asked.

"The one I liked. It's you. Haven't you noticed yet?"

Minato's hands dropped to his sides.

_It was me?_

He was... happy. It was him all along! He was "the lucky guy"!

_How absurd. _

He chuckled uneasily.

Kushina pulled away from him, and looked down on his hands.

"That was why... I didn't tell Konohamaru-kun who it was. Partly," when she remembered how Naruto barged in yesterday, making Minato choke and Kushina and Konohamaru to fall off their seats, "And because I thought you didn't like me... "

Minato took awhile before responding, speaking slowly, "**I** thought **you** didn't like me."

They stared at each other for a while, before laughing together at their inability to notice each other's feelings.

* * *

"**FINALLY-TTEBAYO!**" Naruto slid the door with force equal to Kushina's earlier.

Kushina almost slid from the bed and onto the floor, while Minato almost had the IV needle removed from his arm in shock.

"So I really had to walk out on you two before you start talking. Mattaku! You really don't trust me, now do you?"

_That's what I genuinely feel. Kinda._

"OF COURSE NOT!" both answered firmly.

"I…we trust you, Naruto-nii. You have proven more than enough that you are trustworthy, after all the things you have already done for us," Minato added.

"For that, I…we thank you," Kushina said.

"Thank you," Naruto smiled.

_Honto ni arigato._

Quietly, he walked over to Minato's food bowl, scooped the remnants of the food, and gave it to him, which he readily ate. He returned the bowl on the trolley and wheeled it toward the door. When he was about to open the door…

Kushina suddenly asked, "Wait… you mean you were outside the whole time?!"

_Hehe._

Without turning around, Naruto answered, "**Of course-ttebayo!**" followed by a quick turn of his head and a sly grin, and an even quicker exit out of the door when Kushina picked up the flower vase by Minato's bedside and hurled it with ferocious force at him. Naruto heard the pieces clinking on the floor even as he sped through the hall. He had to stop once to assure a nurse, who heard the vase crash, that everything's fine.

_So much ruckus, even in a hospital, kaa-chan! _he chuckled.

Then, the nurse insisted to return the trolley to the kitchen herself, so he found himself with nothing to do afterwards.

* * *

**So? How was it?**

**Review!**

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**By the way, I'd like to ask you what you'd like to see in the following chapters/Kushina and Minato's remaining days in Naruto's time.**

**Send me your suggestions. :D**


	8. Day 2 (Part III)

Another nerve-wracking week for me. T.T

Nonetheless, I found time to write this baby of mine. 3

Must be a stress relieving activity for me, so pardon me if sometimes the story will twist into depressing states and weird things.

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And again, the text field for the title is too short for this chapter's title, full title is found below. :D

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**Btw, for those asking to see Sage Mode/Bijuu Mode Naruto vs Minato in a full blown fight:**

**WHY? **I mean, it's hard to put that in, but I'll see what I can do.

Actually I already have an idea for that, but I think I'll take a long time to polish that one.

Still **I'm open for suggestions on stuff you want to see in the following chapters, so send me your ideas!** :D

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Here's Chapter 8!

* * *

**Chapter 8 – Day 2 (Part III): I'm an Uzumaki, believe it!**

After that, he wandered in the halls for a while.

"Oh, I'm hungry," he said to himself when he heard his stomach grumble.

He went back to room 125 and cautiously stuck his head in, lest Kushina threw a kunai at him this time.

"Anno, ka— **HIIIIIII!**" as he dodged a myriad of kunai coming his way.

He was right. Several times over.

The kunai went straight out of the door and hit the hall wall, and formed a pattern in such a way that if Naruto hadn't dodged, every single one of the kunai would implant themselves on his body.

_Kowai..._ he thought as he puppet-turned his head toward Kushina.

_She was that angry? Or embarrassed? Hehe. _

Then he whined, "Mou, ka—Kushina-chan, I was only going to ask you if you wanna go get something to eat-ttebayo! We haven't had lunch yet."

"Oh?"

She looked at Minato first, who gave her a warm smile as if in approval.

"Okay, I'm going with you."

She skipped to the door then turning to him, she said, "Jaa ne, Minato! Go ahead and rest."

"I will. Go on," he responded as he shifted his body to lie on the bed. "I'll be fine."

"Jaa ne, Minato-chan! Mm… I guess we'll be visiting you again later in the evening."

"Okay."

Again, he smiled.

_It must have went okay then. Good!_

Naruto closed the door.

* * *

After eating out at a nearby sushi bar, Naruto and Kushina headed home.

"Ah wait. How about we go to the market to buy ingredients for dinner?" Kushina asked.

"Well, okay… You're going to cook?"

"Well, who else would do it? You? Your apartment will burn, Naruto-nii," Kushina mocked.

Naruto retorted, "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" then stopped because he knew it was true.

_Well, there was a time on a mission with Team 7 that I was assigned to cook, and I almost caused a forest fire and ruined the mission. It was a good thing that Kakashi-sensei was there to use a Suiton jutsu on the fire before it spread. Sigh._

"Here we are."

They walked around the market, bathing in the orange light of the setting sun. Kushina swiftly picked out the freshest of the various vegetables and fruits on sale and bargained when she can, while Naruto paid and carried the bags. Before the sun completely set, they were ready to head home.

"Won't we buy meat?"

"No, I'm going to make you eat vegetables for the next few days…Until it's time for us to come back to our time."

_Right… Only 5 and a half days left…_ Naruto immediately sulked at the thought.

They walked in silence after that. When they arrived home at 6 o'clock, Naruto set the bags on the table, while Kushina set to work on their dinner.

"I'll be doing this quickly, we promised Minato we'll be visiting again right?"

"Uh, yeah. I'll just take a bath and change."

Naruto did a quick bath, all the time in his thoughts swam the fact that there's only 5 days left, 5 days left to be with his parents.

5 days left to make it count.

_Ugh…_

* * *

By the time he finished bathing, comfy in his white shirt and denim shorts, Kushina was also finished cooking. He entered the kitchen and saw her partitioning the food she cooked into three, the two portions he assumed to be his and Kushina's and the third for Minato, because she put them in a bento box.

He pulled a chair and sat down, and marvelled at the creativity applied on the bento.

"Ka—Kushina-chan."

"Hm?"

"Where'd you learn to cook like this?"

"Like what?"

"Like this," he gestured at all the food on the table, and the bento. "It's delicious, well, I guess it's healthy too, and beautiful."

"What…hehe…thank you," Kushina was flattered. "Well, I learned from the Academy… and from my mother, I guess."

"Why?"

"What 'Why?'?" came Kushina's confused reply, "It's important on missions, you know. It's taught to us kunoichi in the Academy, along with flower arranging, among others. Helps us blend in during infiltration missions."

"Oh~ Is that all?"

Kushina hadn't seen it coming. The clear you-know-that's-not-what-I'm-talking-about tone in his question.

_So it was going there, huh?_

Kushina drew a deep breath and let it out all at once.

"You want me to say "It's because of Minato"?"

She received an eager grin-nod combo from him. She set down the frying pan on the stove (to prevent herself from hitting him with it), and scratched the back of her head and blushed.

"Well, partly yes. But mostly because I wanted to be really, really good at something."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"Well, you see... I... fail at ninjutsu."

"Pfft!" Naruto suppressed his laugh.

It's clear where his difficulty in ninjutsu taught in the Academy came from.

"Don't laugh!" Kushina pouted.

"Gomen, gomen. Continue please?" Naruto said.

"Even if that was the case, I saw that some of my classmates were good at it, but do badly at flower arranging, and then there are some that are good at flower arranging, but bad at bukijutsu, so I concluded that we are all just good at some things and bad at others. Since I had to live alone for a good amount of time when I first came here to Konoha, I had my mother teach me beforehand various cooking techniques. I practiced and experimented during my stay here alone in Konoha."

"What? But I thought our clan used to have a mansion here with many servants and—" Naruto clapped a hand on his mouth.

_What?! You…_

"How'd you know that?" she asked, suddenly wary.

"Well…" she saw Naruto hesitate for a while, "I've seen it, before… when ANBU would chase me down for vandalizing the HokageMountain. Ahehehe… (good times~) There was the Uzushio crest above the entrance. Sarutobi-jiji used to tell me bits of stuff about it. It's… ruined now…" he trailed off.

_Sarutobi Hiruzen-sama? Our mansion and temple…ruined…_ Kushina thought fearfully.

_Were we driven out even in Konoha, Uzushio's ally?_

_But...no...if he's here, an Uzumaki, then we weren't driven out. Also, the people still wear the Uzushio crest on their garments..._

After a minute of contemplating, Kushina spoke again.

"Now that I think about it, you say you're an Uzumaki, but evidently, you don't have our trademark red hair…" she remarked, while fixing the vegetables in the bento some more.

"Well... haha..." Naruto awkwardly chuckled.

Kushina huffed and said, "Well, I guess one of your parents had that shocking yellow hair of yours."

She missed Naruto's eyes widen at her words.

"Ah, as for the servants… well, I asked them not to interfere with me, and they did, thankfully."

"Hm…"

"Let's eat," Kushina said as she covered the bento, which is a kyaraben… Jiraiya?

"This is for later, Minato won't survive on hospital food, I believe."

She sat down to eat, said "Itadakimasu!" with Naruto, and both ate silently and quickly.

* * *

_Almost got caught there…_

Well, Hiruzen did tell the young Naruto bits about the ruined UzumakiMansion, but he never got close to telling him that his mother used to live there.

_Now that I think about it, I can't remember much of what Sarutobi-jiji told me about that place… _Naruto thought.

The stories were only a fuzzy memory in his mind now.

_Moreover, my yellow hair! It's just a few more steps and she'll know my secret!_

By 8 o'clock they were done, the table and the sink clean and orderly. Kushina also had a bath and changed into the green sleeveless blouse with a black band at the waist and the pale red leggings, both of which Naruto paid for her on Kushina and Minato's first day with him.

Soon they were ready to go.

Kushina insisted on carrying the bento wrapped with orange furoshiki, dappled with blue squares, which she dug out of one of the kitchen cabinets. Naruto was more than willing to allow her, afterall, she made it herself.

* * *

When they reached the hospital, they met Sakura and Hinata at the lobby.

"Sakura-chan, Hinata," Naruto called, then turned to Kushina, "That's Hyuuga Hinata, the one with black hair beside Sakura-chan."

_Hyuuga Hinata, from the Hyuuga Clan, famed for their Byakugan._

Kushina nodded.

"H-hi, Naruto-kun," Hinata waved at him, but kept her hands close to her body.

"There you are, Naruto. You're just in time—Is that... a bento?"

"Yep!" Kushina nodded eagerly, "I made it myself."

"Oh," then Sakura's expression changed, "Is that for Minato-chan?"

She blushed, but said, "Yes."

"He's going to like it, I'm sure. Since you made it yourself," she smiled.

"By the way, Sakura-chan, what were you saying by 'we're just in time'?" Naruto interrupted.

"Ho-hokage-sama came in this afternoon to-to check on him."

"Shishou said he'll be okay to go tomorrow morning."

Naruto brightened up suddenly, and wore his trademark smile, "Well that's…just excellent! Neh, ka—Kushina-chan?"

Kushina's face was equally bright, as she nodded happily.

"Ah, Sakura-chan, say thank you to Tsunade-baa-chan for me, will you?"

"Sure," Sakura smiled.

"We're going then. Bye Sakura-chan, Hinata."

"Uh… Bye, Naruto-kun." "Bye, say hello to him for me!" "M-me too!"

"Yeah, bye!" Naruto bade as he and Kushina started down the hall.

* * *

"Minato," Kushina called as she knocked three times on the door of room 125.

"Hai! Come in," Minato called back.

Naruto opened the door for Kushina as they went in. When he closed it…

"Sakura-nee told us that Tsunade-sama said you can get home tomorrow. Isn't that great?" Kushina excitedly said, "And… did you eat dinner already?"

"Uh, well, no I—"

"PERFECT!" she cut him off, and quickly unwrapped the product of her efforts.

With a flair, she removed the cover and said "TADA!" as soon as it came off.

"Kushina-chan made it for you, Minato-chan," Naruto informed him as he approached his bed and sat by his feet.

"Pfft!" Minato stiffled a laugh.

"ARE YOU INSULTING MY WORK, EH, **MINATO?**" Kushina menacingly loomed over him, cracking her knuckles.

_This will be another riot. _Naruto thought as he readied himself to break the two off if ever his mother caused an uproar. Again.

"Kushina! Of course not, it's just that, I didn't expect Jiraiya-sensei could look this good as a kyaraben."

After that, he can't hold it in any longer, and he laughed freely. Kushina and Naruto joined soon after, and they went on and didn't stop until they were clutching their stomachs and tears were forming in their eyes.

_Whew, thank goodness. Else the hospital staff will kick us out._

Looking at the bento, Minato's expression turned serious as he said, "Now that Jiraiya-sensei is mentioned, I wonder where he is now?"

"What do you mean?" Kushina asked, giving Minato chopsticks.

"Well, he was also marked with the Hiraishin formula, yet it's only the two of us together that arrived here after I _failed,_" he said the last word softly, because he knows he did fail.

"Oh, right, I forgot about him," Kushina replied.

Minato said, "Itadakimasu!" and proceeded to heartily eat the food served to him as thanks for the effort Kushina and Naruto (of course, he did pay for the ingredients) put in it. Meanwhile, Naruto fell into deep thinking.

_If he's here..._

"If Ero-sennin is here," Naruto interjected, "he would have contacted m—Tsunade-baa-chan."

_Without fail, it will be **Tsunade-baa-chan**. First thing. Since he doesn't know me yet during my parents' time._

"That's what I've been thinking about as well. One of his toads should have contacted Tsunade-sama. But apparently, that is not the case, since we should have heard about him from her," Minato said in between mouthfuls of his meal.

"How about we look for him?" Naruto asked.

"It will be a waste of effort. It's not that I don't care about him, but what I mean is, we're not even sure if he **is** here," Kushina said.

* * *

"I guess it is better to wait," Minato decided, finishing his meal.

"Oh well… Oh right! You still haven't told us what exactly happened last night," Naruto piped up.

"Do I have to…" Minato whined. _Do I have to go through this again?_

He received a glare from Kushina almost immediately.

"Okay, okay. Sigh," Minato cringed.

He narrated how he went back to Training Ground 3 and trained, like he promised. How he ran around aimlessly and punched every tree in sight. How he didn't want to stop.

_And I was so hurt and I cried a lot and I had horrible nightmares._

"Then, that's that. Along the way, I think I…fainted…I guess."

"YOU THINK YOU **FAINTED?!** YES YOU DID, AND THEN GOT YOURSELF COLD OUT THERE!" Kushina's temper flared up again.

"Really?" was Minato's dumb answer.

"**REALL**—MMDFSDF"

Naruto had covered her mouth again.

"SSSHHHHHHHHH! If Sakura-chan hears you, we're sure to get kicked out, Kushina-chan!" Naruto tried to talk sense into Kushina, who tried to wriggle from his grasp.

Then he answered Minato's question, how he went all out that night and the following morning, how they found him having convulsions, Sakura's first aid, how they rushed him to the Hospital, how Tsunade saw to him herself.

"You were near-death, to be honest," he finished.

"And Tsunade-sama said it's chakra exhaustion, and now I see why that was the case. It was successive chakra speed outbursts!"

Kushina stopped.

_I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be followed by "What were you thinking, baka?!"_

"Gomen ne," he said.

"It's okay. It's just that you did that recklessly to yourself without thinking of her… us…" Naruto said.

_I guess I was really selfish that time…_

Minato nodded and said another sorry.

Then it was quiet for a time.

"Oi, baka."

"Hm?"

"Promise me…you won't do that ever again."

Minato smiled, "I promise. Gomen ne, Kushina. I promise it will never happen again."

"What then," suddenly her face darkened and she cracked her knuckles then she made a scary grin, "will I do to you** if you broke your promise, eh?!**"

_Kowai…_

"Well that's…" Minato laughed uneasily, while Naruto threw himself in front of her.

"Mou, ka—Kushina-chan, you do want to have Minato-chan out of the hospital by tomorrow, now don't you? Minato-chan, help me here, will you?" Naruto pleaded in an exasperated voice.

Minato held up his bandaged hands, followed by, "I wish I could but… haha."

Well, Naruto would have to stop her before the nurses announce, "Visiting hours' over!"

* * *

Watching the chaos from the rooftop of a building in front of the KonohaHospital, a large figure, shadowed by the moonlight, loomed over the oblivious trio.

Perfectly concealed, he whispered onto the wind…

"So here's where you are. I finally found you, _Minato_."

* * *

Well how was it? **Send me a review!**

.

Again, **I'M OPEN FOR SUGGESTIONS FOR THINGS YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE NEXT CHAPTERS**, so **SEND ME YOUR IDEAS**! ^_^

.

(I just read the latest chapter of Naruto the other day, and I was like, "Why is it that the young Uchiha had to be cute everytime?!" Just sharing.)


	9. Day 3 (Part I): Cooking 101!

This one took a long, long time.

Here's Chapter 9!

* * *

**Chapter 9 – Day 3 (Part I): Cooking 101!**

6 o'clock in the morning…

"Today," Naruto posed, legs spread out, his left hand open against his right fist.

"Is the day," Kushina made the same gestures, only mirrored.

"THAT MINATO," they connected their index fingers from both hands to the other's, "WILL BE RELEASED FROM THE HOSPITAL!"

Even Goten and Trunks will be proud.

"Well, are we going to pick Minato-chan first, or breakfast?" Naruto asked, the question addressed to both to himself and to his mom.

And the answer is…

"Breakfast," Naruto declared and headed for the kitchen.

"Minato," Kushina announced and headed for the cabinet (where Naruto temporarily put hers and Minato's clothes).

"**EEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHH?!**" both stomped back to the other.

"BUT I'M HUNGRY! I **NEED** BREAKFAST-TTEBAYO!" Naruto wailed.

"HOW **SELFISH**, ANATA! WE PICK UP MINATO FIRST, **THEN** WE'LL EAT-TTEBANE!" Kushina blared, followed by a knuckle to his head.

"**IIIITTEEEEE!**"

Naruto's apartment had never been so lively.

* * *

Minato blinked and gaped, "Naruto-nii, what happened to you?"

Well, Naruto looked like he came from the battlefield. He had a black eye, and a huge swollen bump in the head. His stomach gurgled.

"Well…" Naruto tried to explain, but Minato got it when Kushina huffed.

_Mattaku, Kushina._

"Kushina…" Minato sighed.

"Well, he was selfish and wanted to eat breakfast before we pick you up, and I reasoned that we could just eat together after we get you out here," Kushina said, arms crossed.

_"Reasoned"?_

"Reasoned," Naruto echoed Minato's thoughts. Another gurgle came from his tummy as he walked over to the window and opened it a bit.

Kushina ignored him, "Then, here's your clothes, Minato," giving him the navy blue hoodie with two yellow stripes down the right sleeve and pants he had picked out on their first day in Naruto's time.

"Thank you," he said as he jumped off the bed and headed for the small bathroom.

While he was changing, he heard someone knock on the door to his room.

Naruto said, "Come in!"

Minato counted the people that filed in, by their footsteps.

_1… 2… 2 people._

* * *

Naruto, who didn't move from his postion, welcomed the guests, "Tsunade-baa-chan! Sakura-chan!"

They walked in, Tsunade in front and Sakura closing the door.

"I'm here to check on Minato before he leaves. To make sure he's really fine," Tsunade explained.

Minato came out of the bathroom, "Ohaio, Tsunade-sama."

"Ohaio, Minato. Sit on the bed please."

He did as he was told, then Tsunade ran her palms all over his torso and his legs, which had the most damage when he was brought into the Hospital, then took a look at his hands.

Sakura observed the process.

_Training for her, I guess._

"Well, he's okay alright," Tsunade straightened up, "Ah, and I'd like to inform you that the jutsu preparation is in full swing now. The scroll's been found, and the specialists are reviewing how to execute it."

_Oh no… _Naruto sulked, but he tried his best not to show it.

"Yay!" Kushina exclaimed, and held Minato's hands, "We're close to coming back home!"

Minato smiled at her, "Yes!" then he turned to Tsunade, "Arigato gozaimasu, Tsunade-sama."

"No problem," Tsunade smiled.

The two chatted for a while, even dragging Sakura along in the conversation, engulfed in thoughts about getting back home.

"Ah, Naruto…" Tsunade saw his quietness, even at the good news.

Naruto put on a happy face as he faced her and said, "Yes?"

"You're…lonely?"

"No! What are you talking about, baa-chan? Of course, I'm—"

"Don't lie," Tsunade said, stunning Naruto, "I know you don't want them to go."

"Well," Naruto had to admit, then he turned to the window, "yes… but I know it's selfish. They don't belong here, they belong in their time. There are people there that care for them. People who worry about them."

"Perhaps even more than me," he ended in a whisper.

"Don't say that! There may be people who care for them back in their time," Tsunade glanced at the two, then returned her gaze at Naruto, "but you can never ever say that they care more than you do about them. I could see that."

His eyes widened at the faith Tsunade just expressed.

"So stop sulking there, you're wasting the time you're supposed to be spending with them. Understood?"

"Hai," he replied.

_Thank you, Tsunade-baa-chan._

* * *

"**Now** we eat breakfast!" Kushina emphasized.

"All right, all right, ka—Kushina-chan, I get it-ttebayo!" Naruto whined, probably still shaken from the kunai stunt she pulled off on him.

The trio is now walking home, through the already busy streets. Kushina and Minato walked in front, while Naruto was a few steps behind.

"Kushina, please stop…" Minato pleaded.

"Yeah, yeah, listen to him!" Naruto went on.

_Hmph._

"Hai, hai."

Kushina then flipped the pages of her mental cookbooks, looking for a good dish to cook once they reach the apartment.

_Looks like I'm going to have difficulty making him eat vegetables._ she thought as she shot a glance at Naruto.

They finally reached home after a good 30 minutes of swerving through the crowds.

_It's really crowded now… it's only 5 days to Christmas in this time after all…_

Upon entering, Kushina washed her hands at the sink, and took out the ingredients for their breakfast from the fridge.

"Oh, oh, I want to help you!" Naruto presented himself, immediately washing his hands as well.

"Okay, then. You're going to learn how to cook, mister. So you could cook for yourself when we're gone."

* * *

_"…when we're gone," huh?_

Naruto kept silent and buried his head in the fridge, out of sight of the two, pretending to rummage around for more ingredients to add to the breakfast.

"What are you even doing there? The ingredients are all here Naruto-nii," Kushina said.

"Hai, hai," he said as he closed the refrigerator door.

When he did, he saw that Minato was also preparing himself to help in cooking.

"Eh, to-Minato-chan, your hands aren't completely okay yet, right?"

"Well… yeah… but it's not like my hands have gone completely useless, Naruto-nii," Minato laughed.

"Besides, it will be good… uh… therapy, was it… for his hands if he uses them anyway," Kushina added, "And come on here now, or lunch and dinner will be delayed as well."

"EEEEHHHH?!"

Fortunately, the time was spent productively. Kushina taught Naruto majority of the cooking-know-how and a few dishes (they we're preparing breakfast after all, such dishes are few and require even less ingredients) while Minato imparted kitchen ideas and tricks of his own.

By the time breakfast is ready, Naruto knows how to cook basic dishes, like sunny-side ups and rice (Kushina had exclaimed, "YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO DO THOSE?!" while Minato slapped a hand on his forehead and sighed.) and a few relatively complicated ones, like simple bentos and soups, and it became so that the food prepared was enough for the rest of the day.

"We'll just heat these later, I guess," Kushina said, putting the non-breakfast food in the fridge, "Come on, let's eat!"

Left on the table are the buttered toasts and the corn soup with egg, both still steaming.

The three sat around the table.

"Itadakimasu!"

_I wonder what more I could learn from kaa-chan and tou-chan? Hm…_ Naruto thought while munching on his toast dipped in corn soup.

* * *

"It suddenly rained this hard," Minato said.

_It's as if the sky just allowed us to get home before it poured out its contents._

After eating breakfast, the three are now hanging out in Naruto's bedroom, since they can't go out in the heavy rain and strong gusts of wind that suddenly fell on the village. Minato is tucked in bed since Kushina insisted that he rest some more. He protested and said, "Tsunade-sama said I'm okay already!" but that was met with a glare from her and then the discussion is over.

_Haha. When can I ever win in an argument with her?_

"Must be a storm," Naruto said, getting up from the bed and turning on the television sitting on the corner of his room, "Let's see…"

Sure enough the reporters mentioned a storm, not really a huge one, but it's going to be awhile before it weakens and disappears as it goes inland on the Land of Fire.

"There you go, looks like we're stuck here all day," Naruto said.

He was about to flip the channels when electricity went out.

"AAWWW! And the funny TV show was just coming up too!" Naruto whined.

He unplugged the TV and turned to the two. Kushina seems to have found the jutsu scrolls he had shove in the many boxes under his bed.

"Oh wow, these are amazing!" Kushina said.

"Let me see," Minato said, so Kushina handed the scroll he was holding, "These are… Fuuton technique exercises."

"Ah, well, those are from Asuma-sensei. He was a Fuuton user, so I asked him for advice when I was training for new Fuuton techniques."

"These are sooooo cool! Can you teach me these things tomorrow, when the rain stops? Pleeeeeeeaaasssseeeeeeeeee?!" Kushina placed her hands together, and attempted to imitate Minato's puppy-eyes.

_Oh Kushina. _Minato sighed.

"Kushina, Fuuton techniques are not for everyone you know. I've read about it in scrolls in the Library. I didn't find much about Nature Transformation in the scrolls allowed to me, given my rank, but one of it says you need to have an 'affinity' for it," he said.

"Eh? An 'affinity'? What's that?" Kushina asked, tilting her head to the side.

Naruto returned to the bed and sat by Minato's feet.

He tried to explain, "Ah how do I put this… Kakashi-sensei said that our chakra 'naturally leans toward a certain element' with the five elements being Hi, Kaze, Kaminari, Tsuchi and Mizu. For example, I found out I have an affinity for Kaze, so I can easily use Fuuton techniques."

"So, it's about compatibility, right?" Kushina said.

"Yeah, you could say that I guess."

"Ah, Naruto-nii, how would I know what element I have an affinity for?" Minato asked.

"Yes, yes, I want to know too!" Kushina excitedly pushed on.

"Well, I found out with the use of a special paper, which Kakashi-sensei told me to hold and pass my chakra through—Maa, why don't we leave that for tomorrow?" Naruto scratched his head with both hands.

"I'm sure to—Minato-chan here is itching for training," he continued with a sly grin as he watched him from the corner of his eye.

_Right… I almost forgot…_

"Omae, don't forget you promised we'll fight some other time. How does the day when the rain stops sound?" Minato put on the same face.

It became such that their glares electrified the air between them (I'm referring to the 'rival' kind of electricity here, not the 'crush' or 'love' kind), you could almost see sparks fly (again…).

Naruto was the first to turn away.

He directed his sight toward the rain-stricken window, "But, since there's no electricity today, and it doesn't like the rain will stop anytime soon, it's a good time… **TO SLEEP**—"

"**YOU JUST WOKE UP, YOU LAZY MAN-TTEBANE!**"

With her red hair flying about her, Kushina put her hands on her hips after yet another brutal strike on Naruto's head.

_This again…sigh. I can't believe how these two could not get along for long, yet they're so alike! They like ramen, they're short-tempered, they don't back from a challenge… _Minato thought.

"ITTE! But ka—Kushina-chan, we have nothing to do, it's raining outside, it's good time to… zzzzzzzz," Naruto drifted off to sleep, tucked in the futon.

"**WHEN DID YOU EVEN SPREAD OUT THAT FUTON-TTEBANE?!**"

* * *

_Ooooh! That was some good sleep—eh?_

Naruto found he couldn't get up. The reason became clear the moment he opened his eyes.

To his left was Kushina, who had her right arm hugged around his torso. Even Minato, who he had allowed to sleep on the bed so he'll become more comfortable, who lay by his right, had his left arm slung over his body as well. Both were sleeping soundly, even as the rain continued to lash outside. They looked exactly like…

_Kazoku. Family._

_Ryoushin. Parents_

_This is what 'family' and 'parents' feel like, right?_

_If only this moment would last forever…_

Naruto let his tears roll down his cheeks and cried silently, because he didn't want to wake his dad and his mom. He was like that for a while, with "If only"s running through his head, and carving this feeling in his memory.

_Thank you. Thank you!_

"Oh," Naruto whispered.

He got up from the futon carefully, removing their arms from his body and tucking them in the blanket. He took a look at his alarm clock.

_It's almost lunch, huh. It's still raining…_

After all his years living in his apartment, you'd think he'd know everything about it, every panel, every hinge (well, he knows almost every nook and cranny of Konoha from his prankster days, shame on him if he doesn't know the nooks and crannies of his own house). But when he opened the door, he was wishing, _Please don't creak, PLEASE DON'T CREAK!_ and again when he closed it.

_Phew._

He tiptoed to the kitchen.

Wiping away the tears that remained in his eyes, with a smile he said to himself, "Yosh, let's get started."

* * *

"Kushina-chan, Minato-chan, come on, wake up! Lunch is ready!"

"Hmm…" Kushina rubbed her eyes as she rose from the futon.

Alongside her, Minato is doing the same.

"Come on, come on!" Naruto took the both of them by their wrists and dragged them out of the room.

"W-wait Naruto-nii, we just woke up, geez," Kushina said.

"What's with the hurry, Naruto-nii?" Minato added.

"I told you right? It's lunch already, the food's gonna get cold—there!"

"Oh!" was all Kushina could say.

Naruto had cooked up their lunch on his own. Well, not completely. He used the food they cooked earlier and turned them into something else. For example, there was one dish that was made from the fried fish, flaked and beaten with eggs, then used as a coating for the vegetable stems.

_I hope they like it._

"Well, what are you waiting for? Let's eat!" he pushed the two to the table.

While they were sitting down, Naruto said, "Sorry if I messed with the normal looking food earlier, and I just experimented, so if you find burned parts in the food, well…sorry. Haha."

"You tried, Naruto-nii, that's what matters," Minato smiled.

"This food's not gonna taste itself, right? Itadakimasu-ttebane!"

It becomes really clear where Naruto comes from.

In unison, the boys followed with, "Itadakimasu!"

After munching on the food, the judges' verdict is…

"Oh, this isn't so bad," Minato agreed.

"Hm, hm! It's actually good—oh, there's a burnt part here," Kushina said.

"You didn't have to point that out, ka—Kushina-chan-ttebayo!"

"But you need to know where you got it wrong, so you can improve it in the future—this one's too salty," she continued, obviously ignoring Naruto's remark.

"MOU!" Naruto scratched his head with both hands.

His parents laughed heartily at his impatience.

He wanted to say "It's not funny," but stopped himself and just joined in laughter and savored every moment of it.

_Kazoku. Ryoushin._

* * *

There you go!

.

Reviews appreciated!


	10. Day 3 (Part II): Revelation!

**SURPRISE!**

**IT'S A DOUBLE CHAPTER UPDATE!**

.

But I bet you're all going to say that this chapter's lame.

Or something.

Well it can't be helped.

Sorry about that.

Here's Chapter 10! (Can you believe it? It's 10!)

* * *

**Chapter 10 – Day 3 (Part II): Revelation!**

Back to the bedroom, and still no electricity.

There was not much to do except play all sorts of card games and a hundred rounds of rock-paper-scissors. They stopped when it got too dark and they couldn't see what they were playing. Minato and Kushina each won 45% of the games, while Naruto won a measly 10%.

They'd know because they tallied it.

Why?

Because there's nothing else to do.

_Huuh. Tou-chan is sharp; he can probably predict some of our moves. Kaa-chan…well…it's either she's used to these games, or she has exceptional luck, or she's also sharp. Ooorrr, tou-chan might be letting her win. Me on the other hand…_

A gloomy aura fell on him.

Because the results were tallied, the difference is like a slap on the face.

Make that double.

It isn't surprising actually. Naruto loses to his Kage Bunshin in these kind of things anyway.

_But still… huhu._

"Haha, take that, Naruto!" Kushina's so full of her victory, she forgot her manners.

"Kushina…" Minato looked at her.

She stuck her tongue out at him, but she stopped bragging.

Then he turned to Naruto, "Neh, neh, Naruto-nii, there no need to feel sad! These games are just about luck…well, okay, there's some strategy here too, but… that's all."

Her mom ignored Naruto's sulking at defeat, saying, "Neh, if we don't look for candles soon, we're going to have a hard time. It's really getting dark."

"You're right," Naruto stood up, and shook his bad vibes away.

_It's just a game._

Naruto quickly navigated through the short hall, while Minato and Kushina have to feel their way around.

"Here!" Naruto produced a candlestick and a matchbox from the cabinet under the sink.

He promptly lighted it and set it in a candleholder, to prevent wax spills.

"I guess it will be good if we eat dinner already," Kushina suggested.

"Hmm! So we could sleep early!" Naruto agreed.

Kushina glared at him, "Sleep. Again?"

But Minato sided with him, "Well, unless you'd like to suggest something we could do, we'd better be off sleeping, so we could wake up early tomorrow…" then he fired up, you could almost see him glow in the dark, "and start training!"

"Yeah!"

_Actually I just want to sleep, it's really comfy, and the pillows are cold…_

_But tomorrow… My insides are twisting just thinking about it._

_It was also that way with Sasuke, wasn't it?_

"Okay, okay, I get you," she surrendered and took out the food from the fridge to heat.

* * *

After dinner, tidying up the table, and washing themselves, they were back at the bedroom, in their pajamas. They had put out the candle light since they didn't really need it anyway (They are ninjas after all.), and to prevent risk of fire (ironic as it is, since it's raining).

"Can I sleep with you in the futon?" Minato suddenly said.

"Aren't you comfortable in the bed?" Kushina, skeptical, while Naruto with utmost eagerness, "Of course! But I think it will be a little cramped or something."

"The bed's okay, but it's kinda lonely. And chilly. We could squeeze in and keep warm. If it's okay with you that is."

Even in the darkness, Naruto could see his dad blush.

_Ooooh. But they're too young…_

"I'm okay. How about you, ka—Kushina-chan?"

Naruto's question was met with silence.

"Kushina-chan?"

"It's okay…"

_Yes!_

"…Only if Naruto-nii would be the one in the middle. Like earlier after lunch."

"Yosh!" Naruto happily said, "Tuck in then!"

They did and certainly, soon all of them were comfortably warm.

* * *

The question hit him like a humongous log trap.

Only he was expecting to be hit.

"Neh, Naruto-nii, why do you live alone? There's no picture of them in your house, not even one! And nobody thought you to cook—"

"Minato! That's—"

Actually, she wanted to know. She knew they were dead, but beyond ordinary curiosity, she wanted to know what happened to them.

_There's just something in my gut feeling… _she thought.

"It's okay, ka—Kushina-chan. I knew you two would ask anyway. Even before you asked me."

"Eh, Kushina, why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it's not for me to talk about," she replied, staring on her lap.

Minato didn't ask further, and for a while, the only sound was the patter of the rain on the roof and its sloshing on the window, the fall of water from the gutters, and a far away thunder.

_This is really awkward. Maybe I shouldn't have asked._ he thought as he slowly cringed from Naruto.

"Neh, sorry if I'm being to nosy—"

"Ah, where should I begin?"

Silence.

"Naruto-nii, if you don't want to talk about it, just forget my question and let's just get to sleep. It's okay. Gomenasai."

"No need to be sorry… Actually… I wanted to share it with the two of you anyway."

"Eh? Why us?" Kushina pulled on his sleeve.

_Because you are my most important people._

"Maybe… because I trust you enough to do so."

_That's a weird reason, but I'll take it._

"Are you ready?"

Naruto felt the both of them nod.

* * *

"Okay… I'll put it simply. I grew up, alone. Without parents. And worst, outcast by the villagers."

_Outcast… Like I was before. _Kushina thought.

"They wouldn't let me near their shops, their children. Like I had a disease or something.

"They threw things at me, or painful words.

"It's offending… I was hurt… and often I'd go home and cry myself to sleep," he stopped and chuckled uneasily.

"There was even a time I hated them so much."

_Them knowing this… is it really okay?_

He immediately attempted to lift the mood, "But there were people who weren't like that. People who were always kind to me from the start, like Sarutobi-jiji, Teuchi-san from Ichiraku—"

"Hokage-sama," Minato, awed.

"Oh, Teuchi-san! I always eat ramen at that place. He really is a good man," Kushina piped in.

"Yeah… I was a prankster, a major headache to both Sarutobi-jiji and the ANBU actually. My favorite target is the HokageMonument actually—"

"The Hokage Monument! But that's a village landmark, tampering with it is prohibited!" his dad interjected, a tiny bit of anger in his voice.

"Sorry, to—Minato-chan, but that's exactly why it's my regular target. It's something everyone could see! I wanted everyone to see that I am not going to be discouraged by their calllous actions and words.

_Neh, tou-chan, I also painted your face on the Monument, but your face was always a degree better in state than the others… since you are my idol…_

"That I'd never ever going to give up!

"That was also the time I decided that I want to be a Hokage, and be recognized by the villagers."

_Hokage… Just like what I dream to be. A great Hokage whom everyone acknowledges._

_Hokage… That's what I said at my orientation. But of course that was…_

"And by the way, even the ANBU can't chase me down. That's how good I was!

"Even as I entered the Academy, there was a lot of opposition. From the teachers to my classmates' parents. I could hear everything from where I sat alone on the swing in front of the Academy.

"They said I shouldn't be allowed in the school. That I was trouble. That I would be a danger to their children and the village.

"I was alone.

"But then, Iruka-sensei, my homeroom teacher, was the first to understand me. I was extremely glad of course.

"After that I made friends, from my classmates.

"You should know them! I'd invite them to a party or something, and introduce them to you!"

_"Just a few, whom you could really trust." Like you wished, kaa-chan._

"At first they were apprehensive around me, but when we knew each other better, they proved to be the best bonds I ever formed! Especially with my first team, Team 7. You've met two of them, Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei. The other one, Sasuke… he's not here now."

A long pause.

"In the Chunin Exams, I met someone who had exactly the same situation as I did, when I was young and alone. The thing is, he never found frientds. I understood him so much it hurts. Gaara from Sunagakure.

"But now he's got friends like me, so don't worry!

"Though the time that we met, everything was a mess. Konoha almost fell to ruins after an invasion. We lost Sarutobi-jiji that time—"

"Sandaime-sama died?!" Minato was shocked.

_That's impossible…_

"Yeah…sorry…. That was… when I had to set out with Ero-sennin to look for Tsunade-baa-chan. To have her take on the Hokage seat."

"So that's how you knew Jiraiya-sensei. You called him Ero-sennin the other time and I was wondering how you knew about his… pervertedness."

"Yes, and he was the one who thought me the Rasengan."

_Which you created, tou-chan._

"Eh, sugoi…"

_I'd totally ask him about it when I see him, and have him teach me!_

"Soon, Ero-sennin took me in as his student, and we left Konoha for 3 years, to train me. To prepare me for enemies who were after my life."

"AFTER YOUR LIFE?!" Kushina exclaimed.

_Identical to the time Kumogakure had me kidnapped! There must be something about Naruto-nii…_

"The training was successful, I believe, since I defeated most of the bad guys now anyway… But tou-chan warned me of something bigger and badder…

"Bigger and badder?" Minato wondered.

_What can be more sinister than people after his life?_

"Yeah, well…about that can we skip that?"

"Well okay… but how did you meet your father? Wasn't he dead?"

"Yeah well…

_This is getting difficult. But I'd tell them the truth, without lying, just leaving out parts…_

"You see… he was the one who sealed the _thing_ which the villagers despised me for. He tweaked the seal so that I'd meet him and kaa-chan somewhere in the future."

"What is that 'thing'?" Kushina (of all people) asked.

_Here goes nothing._

Naruto let out a shuddering breath.

"It's the Kyuubi."

* * *

And there goes nothing!

.

"Bigger and badder" is an understatement.

Avid followers of the manga should know!

.

Oooh, I wonder how this will turn out.

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Reviews appreciated!


	11. Day 3 (Part III) and Day 4 (Part I)

Full title's below. :D

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Here's Chapter 11!

* * *

**Chapter 11 – Day 3 (Part III) and Day 4 (Part I): Ryoushin.**

_What?!_ Minato momentarily froze.

"The Kyuubi?!"

The mere mention of the Tailed Beast knocked the air out of the red-haired Uzumaki.

_That's… How… _she couldn't even explain how she felt at the time.

"Just how far… in the future have we gone Minato? They had found another… another Jinchuriki!" Kushina shook with anger, "And for your own father to seal the Kyuubi in you too!"

_It's just… it's… he had to suffer the same fate as I did…_

"Kushina, calm down…"

Though Minato wouldn't admit it, he also shook with the same anger, because he knew how Kushina was treated by the villagers, for being both an 'outsider' and a Jinchuriki.

"There was a good reason, ka—Kushina-chan."

_In fact, you told me the events of that day._

"Here you go, I hope no one interrupts this time," Naruto said, laughing weakly, "Hold your breath then!"

* * *

"Kaa-chan revealed to me, that on the day I was born, there was a huge crisis in the village: the Kyuubi went loose and was wrecking havoc everywhere.

"Everyone were trying their best to fend him off the village, yet… so many people died… so many families forever torn…

_Including mine._

"Kaa-chan and tou-chan, each fought hard…each in their own way… to protect me, as my parents… and the village, as shinobi…

"But in the end… they were just people who have limits, I understand that… they were too spent to do anything anymore… but the Kyuubi, the problem, was still there.

"It was tou-chan's idea to seal the Kyuubi in me. Of course kaa-chan was strongly opposed to it… but to the very last, the circumstances left less and less options until it was the only one left… and so they went with it…

"The Kyuubi was sealed within me… and I was orphaned before I ever got the chance to know them…

"All of it was to save me… and the village.

"But before they died… they left something important to me… I realize that now.

"What they left me… it's much, much greater than the Kyuubi…

He paused for a while, and said what he really felt.

"It is love, worth all the years, all my life, that they won't be spending with me anymore…

"And entrusted me hope that I would be able to use the monster, who sowed nothing but despair and suffering, sealed inside me and turn it into something… something that will be for the better of everyone and the whole shinobi world.

_"Fill ourselves with love" was what Mito-sama said right? He was filled with love from the start… _Kushina mused, seeing the words of the old lady hold true for another person sharing the same fate.

"I grew up and managed without parents… met people who love me as I am, my friends… learn all sorts of jutsu… encounter all sorts of things… hehe…

"And all of that… all the opportunities to live my life…

"All of that would be because kaa-chan and tou-chan loved me, that they gave up their life for me… and entrusted me with the future.

"And I'm happy… happy that they loved me.

"I love them very, very much… I wish I could have had more time with them… and have them watch over me… and see me make my dreams come true," Naruto ended, pulling the two, his unknowing young parents, closer to him.

With the conclusion, the three of them found tears running from their eyes.

Both children hugged Naruto tightly, conveying thoughts and emotions they could never say.

"Mou, there's no need to cry… I know… I know that they're… happy… wherever they are now… I know because they told me," Naruto smiled.

"But still…" Kushina could say no more as her small body was racked with tears.

"That's the greatest expression of love I have ever heard…" Minato was in the same state.

"Yeah… Really you two," he laughed a little, attempting to cheer them up before they went to sleep, in spite of his own overflowing tears, "Sorry I thought you were ready for this kind of stuff…maybe I really shouldn't have told you—"

"NO!" came from the both of them.

Naruto was stunned at the reaction, "Eh?"

Kushina was the first to defend the answer, "They are one of the best parents ever!"

To which Minato agreed, "They should be… idolized, they're perfect role models! Not only as shinobi… but as parents as well!"

"Thank you, that you think of my parents that way. I'm glad you now understand."

_If only you knew…haha. _he chuckled.

"Well… That's roughly my life story! Let's keep it a secret?"

They replied with an, "Okay…" and hugged him even tighter.

He responded by pulling them even closer.

"Let's forget about the sad feelings for tonight, neh?"

After a while, both nodded and Naruto wiped their tears away.

"Let's go to sleep then. Oyasumi."

_Oyasumi, kaa-chan and tou-chan. Sweet dreams…_ he thought as he closed his eyes, and a teardrop or two silently escaped.

"Oyasumi," they replied, and both pairs of eyes fluttered shut.

There were still sniffles after a while, then all was silent except the rain beating down outside.

* * *

"Ah!"

Naruto awoke with a start from his deep slumber with the sound of the thunderclap.

He sat up and shook his head.

_Mou… Such a good sleep too…_

He turned his glance on his sleeping young parents.

Minato had curled up into a ball, since the blanket got tugged over to Kushina's side.

He took a look at his alarm clock.

_What time… 3am? Goodness… It's a good thing they didn't wake up…_

The storm seems to have reached its peak, for the wind and rain outside were harsher and wilder than ever.

_The intervals between lighting and thunder had shortened. _he observed as he looked out the rain-streaked window to his left.

_Still no electricity, huh… Seems like they'll fix it in the—what?_

He froze.

* * *

This is one of the shortest chapters I have ever written.

.

Tell me if you think I ended it quite unceremoniously.

.

Reviews appreciated!


	12. Day 4 (Part II): Show yourself!

**SURPRISE!**

**IT'S ANOTHER DOUBLE CHAPTER UPDATE!**

ehem, mostly to make up for the lame Chapter 11, ehem.

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Here's Chapter 12!

* * *

**Chapter 12 – Day 4 (Part II): Show yourself!**

He coundn't see it clearly, but by the window…

_Tsk. This is bad. _he thought, grinding his teeth together.

_My holsters are out of reach… tou-chan and kaa-chan are… I don't want to alert them._

"Who are you?" he asked the figure.

No answer, but it seems the intruder froze at being discovered.

_Of course. Whoever's out there, he won't answer, baka. _he mentally slapped himself.

_But this is weird… I do not sense negative intentions from him…_

_Kono yaro…_

* * *

"Didn't you hear me? I said 'Who are you?'"

He felt a kunai waiting by his neck.

_Fast! Eh, what's this? Senjutsu chakra?_

He kept quiet.

The sound of raindrops falling on the roofs was the only thing to be heard.

"Haha, seems that you found me… I guess I'm not too good at spying missions…"

"!"

"But I wonder about that," and it was his turn to threaten the other, as his Kage Bunshin positioned itself behind him, kunai at the other's neck as well.

"He" who was in front of the atttacker, now turned to him unafraid.

_One wrong move, gaki…_

Lightning flashed, revealing their faces to each other.

In front of him was a teen-age boy, with spiky yellow hair, and whisker marks on his cheek. Yellow orange eyes, flanked with orange markings at the side, slowly turned into sapphire as the orange marks disappeared and the Sage Mode was dispelled.

_What… He greatly resembles someone I know…_

Since he doesn't sense any more hostility coming from the boy, he made his Kage Bunshin poof out.

"E—E—"

"Oi, gaki, are you alright?" he began to worry when tears started to form in his eyes.

The boy's eyes widened, and he started to wipe his tears away.

"Ye—yeah, it's just that…"

"What are you doing with Minato and Kushina, may I ask?"

"Why don't we talk inside, E—"

_This kid doesn't know me, eh?_

Kabuki pose.

"I am known as the great Gama-sennin, known throughout the land, and known—"

"Hai, hai, let's just get inside. It's cold out here, and we'll get drenched in the rain. Let's go in through the front door, they're sleeping," the boy turned away.

"Eh?" he said dumbly.

After a few seconds…

"HOW DARE YOU INTERRUPT MY INTRODUCTION, GAKI!"

* * *

_He really is here, just like tou-chan said… Ero-sennin!_

"Take a seat," he invited, as he took a seat himself.

Jiraiya did so, all aggression from a while ago gone.

Drying his yellow hair, he said, "Let me introduce myself, I am Uzumaki Naruto, E—You must be Jiraiya-sama, one of the Densetsu no Sannin."

_I'm your future student!_

"Oh I see. It seems that you know me already, so no need to introduce myself then. Say…" he narrowed his eyes, "Why are you with Minato and Kushina? Ah… Uzumaki…are you her relative then?"

"Ah—Anno—That—"

_Of all questions, goodness._

"Can we… talk about this in the morning?"

"Why not now?"

"Well… Minato-chan and Kushina-chan are asleep right now, I don't want to disturb them. Besides wouldn't it be better if we talked about this in front of Tsu—the Hokage? She was informed about this anyway."

_One slip and I'll…_

"Oh… You got a point there. I'm pretty tired too, might as well get sleep. Well," he stood up and turned to the door, "Nice meeting you, Naruto."

"Eh? Where are you going, E—Jiraiya-sama?"

"Are you asking me to stay? It doesn't look like there's enough space in your bedroom for another person, and I caught wind that Minato's been injured (really, that kid… overdoing himself), so it would be best if there was adequate space for all three of you, wouldn't it?" he said, while wearing his geta, his hand on the doorknob.

"Ah… Mm," Naruto nodded.

"I'm off then, I'll be back tomorrow."

The door closed.

And it was silent again except for the rain.

He secured the door, turned off the lights, and threw the towel who knows where.

_This rain will be over by morning, I wish… _he thought as he returned to his room and once again took his place between his dad and his mom.

_Ah, first…_

He tugged the blanket from the bed, and threw it over Minato.

Still sleeping, he gladly took the blanket and wrapped himself in it.

_Haha… that's cute, tou-chan._

Seeing both his parents comfortably warm and sound asleep, he tucked himself in hummed himself back to sleep.

* * *

The rain did stop in the morning.

The air is chilly and it is most certainly good to just curl in the futon and…

"**WAKE UP, YOU TWO!**"

Whew, certainly better than an alarm clock.

No, scratch that, better than a fire alarm.

Well, Minato was up and about in a while, and seeing what he was curled in, threw the blanket over the bed and fixed it.

Naruto was a different case however.

"Five more… minutes…" he said, rolling and facing the other side.

"Iie, iie, that… won't… DO!" Kushina jerked the blanket, sending Naruto whirling in midair and falling on his backside with a thud.

"Itte-tte-tte!"

"That ought to wake you up," she said, walking back to the kitchen.

That left Naruto thinking he didn't get what he expected he would.

_Strange._

"Neh, neh, Naruto-nii, hurry, hurry! The rain's stopped, we're having training for today, right? You promised, come… on," Minato dragged him from the futon.

"Hai, hai," he finally said, getting up and fixing the futon then keeping it away.

* * *

"Neh, neh… What's for breakfast?" Naruto entered the room, hand on his belly.

"Here. It's macaroni soup. It's made with macaroni (of course), milk, lettuce and carrots."

"Woah, this looks good! Itadakimasu-ttebayo!"

Minato looked up from his bowl and said, "Naruto-nii, it's still hot so be—"

"HOT, HOT, HOT!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Well, I warned you, right?" Minato sighed, and blew on his soup.

"That's what you get for being too hasty, Naruto-nii," Kushina scolded him, in a tone a bit kinder than all previous days, but nonetheless stood from her seat and went to pour him a glass of water.

_Eh, kaa-chan seems a bit more gentle today…_ he thought as he gulped down the glass of water, while she returned to her seat.

"Thank you, Kushina-chan!" he smiled as bright as the sun, but immediately disappeared as he remembered something.

"Oh right, I forgot to tell you about—"

"**Gama-sennin Jiraiya is in the building!**"

Minato swallowed a carrot stick whole, and Kushina choked on a lettuce slice.

Naruto just shouted at him, "CAN'T YOU ENTER MORE PROPERLY?! You could have knocked-ttebayo!" then rushed to his parents' aid.

_Really, kaa-chan and tou-chan could get killed with choking-ttebayo!_

* * *

When they've recovered, and finished with their soup (they gave Jiraiya some, too)…

"Jiraiya-sensei, how come you haven't come and tried to find us? To inform us you're here as well?"

"Huh? What are you talking about? I did try and find you. I first saw you two at the hospital. You shouldn't push yourself too hard, you know that, Minato."

Minato looked down embarrassed.

Oh, if only he knew how his student had been a complete idiot.

"And I came here at 3am. Naruto here even confronted me. That's when I proved he was not an enemy, and was actually protecting you two."

Naruto scratched the back of his head and grinned, while his chibi-kaa-chan huffed and said, "Who wouldn't try and confront you at that ungodly hour, Ero-sennin?"

"Don't call me 'Ero-sennin', it's 'Gama-sennin'! 'Gama-sennin'!"

_How nostalgic…_

Naruto immediately remembered how Jiraiya would deny being an 'Ero-sennin', yet be so open about it and brag about being a super pervert.

"Eh, Naruto-nii, you met sensei earlier? Why didn't you wake us up?"

"That's exactly the reason why I didn't. I didn't want to disturb your sleep. Besides, won't it be better if Tsunade-baa-chan explained the situation to him?"

"Ah, I see. You got a point there."

"Well, let's get changed, you two. Let's have Ero-sennin tell his story later."

…

"ERO-SENNIN? Just what have you been telling Naruto about me, you two?!"

* * *

When Naruto locked the door, he turned two the three time-travellers and said, "We'll be going straight to the HokageTower, all right? No stops, no buts. We're going straight there and have your," he looked at Jiraiya, "questions answered. Understood?"

They nodded, and quickly scooped his parents and went by the route like the first day.

And like the first day, the red haired Uzumaki was screaming like a banshee, with her hair flying about her.

Literally.

Resembling Kyuubi's tails.

_Oh… so this is how kaa-chan gets angry… _

_No wonder she had a nickname as scary as 'Akai Chishio no Habanero'…_

Meanwhile, Jiraiya's too busy looking below the village and what changed in its streets…

* * *

They stopped in front of the Hokage Office' door.

"Please wait here, neh?" then turning to her parents, "Just like the first day."

"Just like the first day… **BUT YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO DRAG US LIKE THAT AGAIN-TTEBANE!**"

"Haha, gomen, gomen," Naruto laughed, while Minato kept Kushina away from him,

"But you see, it isn't you… it's him," pointing at Jiraiya ("Hey, hey, what about me? What are you talking about?"), "That has many unanswered questions, so we need to get here as fast as possible."

He turned and knocked at the door, "Wait for my signal out here, neh?"

"Come in."

_Good, it's Shizune-nee._

* * *

He hurriedly closed the door and went in.

"Anno saa, anno saa, Baa-chan, I have a surprise for you."

_Oh, what could this be…_

"You can come in now!"

A grinning (the suspicious kind) Kushina walked in first, followed by a giggling Minato…

_Why is she smiling like that… and he's giggling…_

Then…

* * *

There!

.

Reviews appreciated!


	13. Day 4 (Part III): Jiraiya

Finally, the long awaited Chapter 13!

* * *

**Chapter 13 – Day 4 (Part III): Jiraiya's tale.**

_Oh. My._

Tsunade's eyes widened.

Jiraiya walked after them, muttering, "Why are you laughing like that? Are you alright?" looking down on the kids and worried over their mental state.

"Ji—"

"Hm?"

No sooner had he turned to her and his own eyes widened in surprise, Tsunade already had her arms around him.

"Oh, Tsunade! Have you decided that you love me?"

_**EH?**_

She pulled a way and smiled sweetly, "Love you, eh?"

By that smile he should have known that he stepped on a landmine.

Quick as lightning…

"**DON'T MESS WITH ME, KONO YARO!**"

Tsunade huffed and turned back to her table, leaving Jiraiya wriggling like a worm on the ground and with a huge bump on the head.

Minato was all, "Ah, are you alright, sensei?" and both Uzumakis were gaping.

_Way to ruin our reunion, Jiraiya._

_But that's how you've always been…_

After Tsunade has settled back on her seat, a steaming cup of tea by her side, and Jiraiya has recuperated from his injury (and whining how violent Tsunade is)…

"So, you were the 'Hokage' and 'Tsunade-baa-chan' these kids were talking about."

"That's right. Haven't you seen the Monument," Tsunade said in a kind of boastful tone.

"Eh… well, no… I've only been here for two days… in this time I mean."

"That's more than enough time, Jiraiya."

"Well, why don't you tell us what happened, Ero-sennin?" Naruto interrupted.

"Hmmm… so…"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The moon's partly covered by clouds.

Jiraiya suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and fell with a thud on his back.

"Itte-tte-tte," he murmured, "Where…"

He looked around and saw the all familiar three log posts, and the Konoha flag flying in the light, cool wind.

"Training Ground… 3."

_Did I pass out?_

_Where are those kids? Leaving me alone out here!_

_You're going to have it later, Minato! _

He stood up and shook his head. Then he brushed dust off his clothes and taught of ways to punish his student without being too harsh or being too obvious.

But his thoughts were easily diverted by…

_Might as well continue my 'research' instead, hehe!_

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jumping over the rooftops, there was a good view of the bars and clubs below.

The moon got covered with the clouds…

_Eh… Gotta be careful, might slip on these…_

"—wish I could but… haha."

_!_

_That's…_

He pulled into a stop, and walked over the roof's edge to see where the familiar voice came from.

All while being careful not to be seen.

_I thought so._

"So here's where you are. I finally found you, _Minato_."

_In the Hospital? With bandaged hands?_

_Must be the effect of the Hiraishin. He really should refine that one._

Pounding his right fist on his left palm…

_Ah I see._

He conjured up a story in his head.

_Maybe that's why I was left alone back there!_

_Maybe Minato passed out after the jutsu, and got his hands injured…_

_Of course Kushina would be more worried about him than for me._

_Ah, yes, yes._

_She got him to the hospital and got him treated._

_And forgot about me._

_Sigh._

That's… just sad, Jiraiya.

_But by the way, who's that boy in a blinding orange suit?_

He wanted to observe how Minato and Kushina interacted with the stranger, and deduce their relationship with him, but by the time he looked back, the stranger can't be seen from where he's standing, but he still caught Kushina waving goodbye to Minato.

Then she was out of view as well, and Minato's hospital room lights were turned off.

_I'm worried about Minato, but he might as well get more rest._

_More importantly… Kushina…_

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

His tailing of the two brought about little results.

The pair entered a shabby looking apartment, changed into pajamas, then went to bed.

They chatted for a while, but that was all.

_So… Minato's getting released from the Hospital tomorrow eh…_

_So far this boy's done nothing suspicious to her… but why did Kushina go with him? Her clan has a huge manor in the village!_

_Something's off here._

_But in the meantime, I don't think the boy would do anything to her…_

Around midnight, he hopped off the roof, when he was sure they were sleeping.

_Time for some investigation then._

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

His "investigation" brought even less results, if not none.

Disguised as a young, handsome (really good-looking) man, the girls in the cabaret just flirted with him, and in the end just got wasted and acquired a nasty headache.

By the time he came to his senses, it was already the morning of the next day.

_Keh, it seems that they didn't know anything…_

He found he was draped with a small blanket.

_Oooh, what luck. It seems that _-san did this. Hospitable as ever… _he thought, because his Henge jutsu had worn off.

It would blow his cover if anyone were to see him like this. He activated the jutsu again then stopped by the counter to pay.

_12pm huh, geh… I'm guess I screwed up… A lot—_

_What the…_

"Mister, is the year on the calendar, that one on the wall, correct?"

"Of course, it is, sir."

_Tsk, so that's what's off!_

"Here, I'll be going now, thanks for allowing me to stay for the night. Keep the change!"

He dashed off, thinking, _Now that I got a good look at _-san, he seems a lot older than I last saw him!_

_Geh, just what's going on here?_

_First…_

He headed for KonohaHospital, soaking wet from the rain, but upon inquiring about his kawaii student, he found he was discharged more than a few hours ago.

"Mattaku," he glared at the sky, "Can't I get anymore unlucky for today?"

_But then again, he can only be at that boy's house. Maybe I'm still lucky after all._

_But first…_

He chowed down lunch at Yakiniku Q, still under his disguise. When he was done, he paid the bill, exited the shop, and looking around to make sure no one's looking…

"Gamagakure no Jutsu!"

A discreetly pigmented toad appeared, and off it went, perfectly camouflaged by the muddy ground.

_It's the perfect way to go by. No one will be able to detect my chakra… And it goes just right with the rainy weather, haha! _Jiraiya thought, immensely pleased with himself.

He ordered the toad to the stranger-in-a-screaming-orange-suit's house, but when he reached the place, the curtains were drawn, so he couldn't really see anything.

He decided to eavesdrop instead.

_They're playing a game…_

_Janken?_

After 3 hours…

"Yay!"

_It's the boy._

Then he heard, "Let's play daifugo, next!"

_Kushina._

After another 3 hours…

"Hanafuda, hanafuda!"

_Minato._

After 30 minutes…

"This is getting harder and harder to play, Naruto-nii…"

"Yeah…"

"Keh, you two are just looking for excuses because you're both losing to me on this one-ttebane! Hahaha!"

_So the boy's name is 'Naruto', huh._

After 25 minutes…

"No, seriously, my eyes hurt."

"Me, too…"

"Well, okay, we'll stop, but we'll be averaging these!"

"No way-ttebayo!"

"Yes way-ttebane!"

There was some bickering, but in the end, Kushina won against 'Naruto'.

_As expected._

It was silent for a while. Then…

"Yatta! Minato and I won-ttebane! Haha, take that, Naruto!"

_Kushina forgetting her manners…_

"Kushina…"

_Minato pleading her to stop._

The girl did stop, and Minato went ahead and comforted the poor guy.

_Heh, must have had tough luck, like a certain someone._

Kushina suggested they look for candles soon, since it's seriously getting dark. They didn't return to the room.

_Must be eating dinner…_

His stomach grumbled.

_I should go too, I'll get back later._

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

He got his dinner (and gave the toad some) then wandered the village for a good while in the toad's stomach, deep in thought.

Why not?

He's already two days into this world, or time plane, whatever.

_This is why I don't meddle with space-time ninjutsu! With the exception of the Kuchiyose no Jutsu, of course. But even with that I had trouble in the beginning. _remembering how he was transported to MountMyoboku when he attempted the jutsu without having a contract with any of the summoning animals.

_But since my student Minato asked for it…_

_Sigh._

This place… so alike their own, yet so different.

He was so engulfed in his thinking and pondering, that by the time he returned to 'Naruto''s house, the three are already tucked in bed, ready to sleep.

But he still caught bits of their ongoing conversation.

There was something like forgetting about the "sad feelings" for tonight.

_Sad feelings? What did they talk about?_

"Oyasumi."

"Oyasumi."

_ARGH! Really, I got absolutely nothing from that!_

Jiraiya bit his lip.

_This is getting nowhere._

The thing is, he doesn't want to alert the boy. If worst comes to worst, the boy might be able to use the both of them against him. Not that his student Minato will be able to notice that right away… but Kushina…

He **will** protect her, no matter what it costs him.

And that way, they'll be both caught up in the mess.

Jiraiya has faith in his own abilities of course (really big faith at that), but he doesn't really want to hurt someone who isn't even doing anything against him.

The boy might be innocent after all.

_Ugh, this is really crazy._

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

After much, much planning and scratching plans and more planning, this is what he came up…

_I guess I will have to talk to the boy myself._

Ridiculous as it is, it's the only plan he can come up with.

Breaking and entering is not a choice, obviously.

Nor kidnapping the boy (since he's sandwiched between the kids), nor getting the kids away (because both children are by his side) are options.

_Since when have I lost my edge, eh?_

_For some reason, I just don't know how to deal with the kid._

_Crazy thing, like I said._

_Maybe it's because he looks a lot like Minato?_

_That's absurd._

He shook his head, hoping that his disordered mind will finally get fixed.

Coming out of the toad and sending it back to Mount Myoboku, he hid his presence and went around the house twice, looking for an entrance (other than the front door, ninjas do not simply enter through front doors) and thinking how he should approach the guy.

In the end, he found three other entrances: the terrace door and the windows in the kitchen and the bedroom.

_Yosh. Let's go._

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

_Not._

_Of all times for the boy to wake up._

It's really bad timing.

The storm's picked up, and Jiraiya's outside, soaking wet and lightning rod candidate.

_Psh… How can I ever—_

A "Who are you?" came from inside, muffled by the barriers between them and the rain.

_Great._

Now he's been discovered, there's no turning back.

But still he hesitated to meet the boy head on.

_I'm getting old for this—_

"Didn't you hear me? I said 'Who are you?'"

Jiraiya felt a kunai waiting by his neck.

_Senjutsu chakra? Interesting…_

He kept quiet.

The sound of raindrops falling on the roofs was the only thing to be heard.

He let out a hearty laugh, "Haha, seems that you found me… I guess I'm not too good at spying missions…"

"!"

"But I wonder about that."

_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!_

Jiraiya turned to 'Naruto'.

_One wrong move, gaki… and you're going to get it._

With the flash of lightning, he was able to see 'Naruto' better.

For a moment he thought it was Minato with makeup whiskers and accidentally drank an instant growth medicine.

Minato who suddenly learned Sage Mode.

_Sage Mode, huh? And from the toads too._

_Hehe, not bad for a kid._

He was even more stupefied at the similarity between his student and 'Naruto' when the boy's Sage Mode was deactivated.

The once rectangular-pupiled yellow orange eyes were replaced with round, sapphire eyes.

As much as Jiraiya was surprised at him, it seems the boy is equally surprised to see him.

Sensing no further aggression, the man dispelled his Kage Bunshin.

The teen then proceeded to stutter with the letter "E".

_Haha, he's intimidated with just that? What a—_

He stopped when he saw him on the verge of crying.

"Oi, gaki, are you alright?"

Such a softie, isn't he?

The boy's eyes widened, and he started to wipe his tears away.

_What? Strange._

"Ye—yeah, it's just that…" he answered, but Jiraiya didn't feel he was going to continue, so…

_What's wrong with this kid, suddenly crying like that?_

_Oh, right._

"What are you doing with Minato and Kushina, may I ask?"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Well, that's it! The kid didn't answer my question, but he invited me inside and said 'Can we talk about this in the morning?' with the Hokage, no less (And it turned out to be you, of all people! I wonder what that old geezer was thinking.). I was kinda angry that he wasted my time, but he invited me to stay for the rest of the night, I was kinda pleased (so it evens out). But I refused, since I got investigations to do."

"But I'm telling the truth, I really can't answer your questions, Ero-sennin. By my self, at least."

"It's not Ero-sennin! It's—"

"And who would want to sleep in the same room as you, Ero-sennin? It's a good thing you refused Naruto-nii's offer."

"Kushina…"

"But—That's—"

Seeing he wouldn't win against the two Uzumakis, Jiraiya just shut his mouth and stared sulkily at Naruto and Kushina exchanging winks and okay-you-did-great! signs.

Meanwhile Tsunade is making fun of his predicament and Shizune and Tonton are suppressing their laughter, while Minato is torn between his sensei's or Kushina's (ehem, his love, ehem) side.

"It's not funny, Tsunade."

"How they defeated you in verbal battle, that's what's funny! Ha ha ha," she voiced the last three syllables deliberately with mirth on her face.

"But the situation you three are in, that's what's not funny, since it just gives me headaches. Really, having two time-travellers was stressful already, and then I have three now. I guess I'd have to ask the specialists to adjust the jutsu to accommodate three people…"

She paused and sighed.

"Minato, are you sure you only marked these two and yourself?"

"Hai, Tsunade-sama."

"Good, because I don't want to disturb the specialists more than once."

_It's not like I'm scared of them of course, but I don't want any more hassle._

_They're hard to deal with when they're grumpy._

"So, can you now explain to me what happened here?"

_Really, another long, confusing conversation._

"Ah, Minato, Kushina? How about you go off somewhere for a while with Naruto? I'm sure you don't want to hear a looooooong and booooooring conversation, now do you?" Tsunade made sure to emphasize.

Kushina immediately blurted "Yes!" and proceeded to drag Naruto out of the door, while Minato deliberated for a while about leaving his sensei.

In the end, he thought whatever they were going to talk about, there would be a good reason why Tsunade wanted them out of the room.

"Anno, Baa-chan, about to—Minato-chan's—"

_The time-travel thing?_

"Oh, sure, I won't tell him, since he shouldn't know yet."

"Thank you."

With that Naruto allowed himself to be pushed out of the door, followed by Minato who said a quick "I'll see you later, sensei."

"What was it that I shouldn't know about Minato?"

"You don't need to know about it. At least not yet."

Jiraiya fell silent fo a while, "It's because I'll be learning about it in our future?"

"Yes. That was quick, Jiraiya," she smirked.

"Don't mock me, haha."

"Any more questions?"

"Why are you the Hokage? Okay, I understand that this is the future, and the geezer might have retired already, or… died," he dodged a scroll heading for him, "What? He **is **old!"

"Don't talk about it so casually, mattaku!" she sat back on her seat and steadied her breath.

Then she continued, "You refused the title **again**, that's all I'm telling you."

_Yeah, and you hunted me down instead, and gave me this workload!_

"Oh. That's not very surprising, I could totally imagine my future self doing it."

Tsunade rolled her eyes and sighed.

"So, about your situation…"

* * *

And that's it!

You got bored, right? Right? *cries in corner*

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I think you guys will have to wait a long, long time for the next chapter to be up.

Why?

1. I shall savor my short vacation (in the province, where computers and the Internet are non-existent) before our final exams.

2. Final exams week. UGH.

3. Another short vacation (of course I'll be writing!)

4. Enrollment for summer classes. UGH. **T**A**T**.

5. Summer classes (IT'S MATH. **OTL**)

6. There's a surprise in the next chapter. :D (or SHOULD HAVE BEEN, I stupidly formatted my USB without saving the copy on the computer. TT_TT)

.

Wait for it, please!

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Reviews appreciated.


	14. Day 4 (Part IV)

It sure took a while!

See, this stupid author decided in a flash to format her USB.

So deleted along is the original Chapter 14, which, I think, is much better than this one.

Sad story, isn't it?

And yet again, the long title which can't fit in the title text box.

The title's below.

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I've kept you waiting for long, so here's Chapter 14!

* * *

**Chapter 14 – Day 4 (Part IV): The day I've been waiting for, dattebayo!**

When they were outside the Tower, heading for the stairs leading downward, Naruto dilly-dallied about what he's supposed to say…

"So… about the training I promised you—"

"Yes, it's today, right? Are we going for it, Naruto-nii?" Minato eagerly asked.

_Oh no… _Kushina clenched her teeth at the words.

They stopped on a landing.

She put her arms on the railing, acting coolly.

The truth is, she was glancing sidelong at the two, but said nothing.

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked, in his tone a hope that he'd say no.

Of course not.

"Yeah, I'm really sure!"

The Uzumaki heiress still placed her hope on the more rational (probably) Naruto.

And she couldn't be anymore stunned at Naruto's answer.

"Well, then. Yes, were going at it," he smiled, "A promise is a promise, right? I never go back on my word, that my nindo!"

Minato rejoiced, while Kushina gaped at him in disbelief.

_What?_

Her hope had gone to waste.

This has to stop.

Right now.

She tried to interfere, "Bu—but, Naruto—"

"But," Naruto cut her out, but his face holds seriousness this time, "we're taking Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei, and we're informing Tsunade-baa-chan and Ero-sennin beforehand. Fair?"

"Fair!" Minato immediately replied, already dragging Naruto back up the stairs to inform his sensei and the Hokage, "Come on, let's go!".

"**WAIT A MINUTE HERE-TTEBANE!**"

Even Minato had to stop climbing, no matter how he looked forward to this day.

From the top of the stairs, both boys looked back at the crimson haired girl, who they had left at the landing and was panting from her effort at getting their attention (which is surprising, since she's so used to shouting).

"Just wait a minute here-ttebane," she repeated, trying to catch her breath, her brow furrowed, "You're not even considering how I think about this? How—how I feel about it?"

"Ka—Kushina-chan…"

Naruto made an effort to head back down, but his tou-chan still has his wrist in his grip.

_Anata no baka…_

"Oi, Minato, you just got out from the hospital-ttebane! Right? Are you looking for more injuries?"

She's talking high-speed now, showing how aggravated she is.

Minato didn't answer.

"What?" she pushed against the railing, headed for the two boys, her left hand on the wall of the Tower.

"Are you just going to stare at me like that and—"

"Kushina, Naruto-nii and I agreed with this right? Whatever happens afterwards, it will be our fault," Minato said gently, as if ignoring Kushina's worries.

_How can you be so—_

Kushina could not believe what she was hearing.

She knew Minato to be a level-headed guy, someone who wouldn't just jump into something unless he had it all thought out.

He wouldn't pick a fight (because 'spar' doesn't fit it) with someone who's supposed to be his sempai.

Why was he doing this now?

"So that's it?" she could feel her tears already, "That's your—"

She stopped.

In a flash, Minato had appeared right before her, his face inches from hers, his sapphire eyes staring into her onyx ones. It made Kushina draw back a little, only for her to realize the wall behind her, and then they were frozen like that for a while.

Meanwhile, Naruto's hand dropped to his side at the sudden disappearance of his tou-chan by his side, and now he's witnessing how red his kaa-chan is.

He saw how Minato's blank face began to break into an amused grin, seeing that his action had worked and had gotten the desired reaction from Kushina.

Naruto suppressed a giggle, disguising it as a cough.

That released the tension.

"Anno…baka…" Kushina pushed him away lightly with a closed fist, "What are you doing-ttebane…"

Minato backed down promptly, and stood a good distance away from Kushina.

Then he said, "Because I knew you wouldn't listen if I didn't get you to stop talking."

"Are you insulting me?" she narrowed her eyes at him.

"No! Of course not. It's just that it's no use if you'd scream at me and then I'd try getting over your voice. Then we'd both be shouting at each other, and nothing will work out," he smiled.

And that seemed to calm the Akai Chishio no Habanero, since the storm inside her that showed on her face eased, and soon enough there was no trace of it.

_Like the sun…_

"Okay, now that I know you're going to hear me out, I'll explain! As I said, we have planned this already right? And I'm sure Naruto-nii won't agree to this too for no good reason."

"But he's a blockhead."

"Ka—Kushina-chan! How could you—"

"Ehem," Minato brought the attention back to him, "And notice he's conditions for our spar. He had required to bring along Sakura-nee and Kakashi-san. Also, we had to inform Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sensei before going for it. What do you think would their roles be?"

Kushina pondered on it for a while, enough time for Naruto to walk over to them.

Then she came up with an answer.

"Oh, I see! Sakura-nee will be the medic of course… but Kakashi-san?"

"Kakashi-sensei's there to stop the two of us, if ever," Naruto answered.

"You see, Naruto-nii has it all prepared. No need to worry," as Minato poked her on the forehead.

"But still…" rubbing her forehead where Minato had touched it.

"So are we okay then, Kushina-chan? Like he said, I won't even be agreeing to this if I had not prepared countermeasures (which is new for someone like me, haha.)."

"Okay…"

"And to—Minato-chan, don't pull on ka—Kushina-chan's leg. If only you had seen how worried she was when you disappeared, you would understand."

"Hai…"

"Now then, shall we go?" Naruto beckoned, and both children clung to each of his hands.

* * *

"—he did that all by himself?"

"Yes—Oh, Naruto, you're back? That's too soon."

Naruto stepped sideward into the room, kind of embarrassed.

He knew they we're talking about him before he got 'caught'.

_Maybe they'll think I've been eavesdropping…_

"Well… Anno, Tsunade-baa-chan—"

"Pffft, 'baa-chan'? That's—sorry."

Jiraiya knew to shut his mouth when he received a dark glare from Konoha's Namekuji-hime.

"Continue, Naruto."

"Ah—yes. I sort of promised to—Minato-chan a spar the other day, you know, when Kakashi asked to substitute for me."

"Yes, I remember."

"And we intend to commence today. Training Ground 3. I'm going to fetch Sakura-chan for our medic, and Kakashi-sensei to stop us if things get too far. I just returned to inform—"

"I'm coming."

"—you about—Wait, what?" Naruto double taked.

"I said I'm coming. Jiraiya and I will be there later."

Shizune was strongly against it of course, "But, Tsunade-sama, your work's—"

Where Tsunade, Jiraiya and Naruto stood, there was only thin air.

"—not done yet. Sigh. I guess there was no stopping her, neh, Tonton?"

"Buhi, buhi," Tonton could only sympathize with her master's apprentice.

* * *

"So, why were we here again, Naruto?" Sakura asked.

By her side, Kakashi stood, and seems to be asking the same thing.

"Well…"

"Let's get it straight then," Kushina answered for him, "You're a medic right?"

"Yes, of course."

"And Kakashi-san, you're Naruto-nii's sensei right?"

"Uh-huh," the silver-haired jounin nodded.

"Sakura-nee, you're here as a medic, and Kakashi-san, you're here to stop Naruto-nii. Ero-sennin will be responsible for Minato."

"Don't go assigning roles on your own, gaki!" disguised Jiraiya butted in.

Tsunade had him put up his henge jutsu despite his protests (like, "What about Minato and Kushina? They're not in henge!"). But then again, Jiraiya knew there was a good reason for that and he didn't have to know what that was, so he didn't ask anymore.

If only he knew that people won't take lightly seeing someone who was a great person and who had recently died walk around the streets as if it were perfectly normal.

"**URUSAI, ERO-SENNIN! AS IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE!**" shaking her fists at the sage.

They clawed at each other, so Naruto and Minato had to keep them from each other.

When they calmed down, Sakura asked, "Why call me out here, when Shishou's out here?" pointing to Tsunade, who seems to really enjoy escaping from her office.

"Let's just say she wasn't part of the plan," Naruto whispered, "But I guess it's better that way. We have two medics now."

Sakura and Kakashi hmm'ed in unison.

It was silent for a while, then Minato suddenly came up with, "Neh, Kakashi-san…"

"Hm?"

"I forgot to ask the other day, but do you know Sakumo-sempai? He's an upperclassman, and one of the best graduates from the Academy. He looks like you…"

Kakashi stiffed at the mention of his father's name.

To make things worse, Kushina also had to notice, "Oh, that know-it-all? Well, now that I look closer at you, you really do look like him."

"Well, that's…" Kakashi had his smile on, but he was perspiring behind the mask.

"Saa, don't you think it's time to start? The sun's climbing fast~" Tsunade barged in between them, "Come on now!"

Kakashi swore he's going to buy her a crate of sake, or a few kilos of chicken breasts, whatever fits his next salary after he had taken out his living expenses.

* * *

Shizune came across a black cat while fixing Tsunade's desk.

She shrieked and fell on her behind, scaring the cat, and Tonton chased it out of the room.

"Where did that even come from?" she murmured, standing up while shaking the dust off her clothes.

* * *

Minato and Naruto took their positions on opposite parts of the field.

_Why did I agree to this again? _is the one thought that crossed the teen's mind repeatedly.

Maybe he wanted to have this fight, deep inside his heart.

It was just like that with Sasuke, right?

"This match will be?" Tsunade asked.

"A no-holds-barred one," both sapphire eyed boys responded.

"But—" Kushina tried to protest, but then she saw the determination in Minato's eyes, and knew she can't stop him no matter what.

Even Tsunade seemed flustered at their decision, but finally said, "Alright, a no-holds-barred match. Just as agreed, Sakura and I will be on standby as medics to attend to you should the need arise, while Kakashi and Jiraiya are to stop you if necessary. A no-holds-barred match it is, and I must say that whatever move you make is at your own discretion. So use that according to what you think it right."

Then she paused.

"Are their anymore that needs to be said?" Tsunade turned to each of the people on the Grounds.

Jiraiya stepped forward.

"Minato, your Hiraishin seems to be still a bit off. I heard you used it recklessly here," he gazed intently at his student, who gave him a half-embarrassed and half-sorry smile, "which got you to the hospital. Do not use it today, nor anytime while we're here in this time plane. Who knows where you'll end up next?"

"Hai, Jiraiya-sensei. Sorry…"

"Ganbatte, Minato!" Kushina called out.

He said, "Thanks!" and flashed her a smile.

"Neh, Sakura-chan, won't you cheer for me?" Naruto pleaded.

"Shut up or I'll take you down faster than Minato-sa—Minato-chan could, shannarou!"

"Okay… okay…" he sulked comically.

"Do your best, Naruto."

"Yosh, Kakashi-sensei!"

"That's okay then?" Tsunade inquired, and seeing no objections, "Yes? Then we'll start."

A breeze blew over the field.

"On one."

"3."

"2."

"**1!**"

* * *

Thanks to ~skdc8595 for correcting me about Sakumo's age in relation to Minato and Kushina's age!

Also to ~Noxy the Proxy for the Sakumo similarity suggestion!

So guys, if you have something you'd like to see in the future, feel free to tell me!

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I know I didn't update in a while, so feel free to express your comments, suggestions and violent reactions. :D

I will appreciate them greatly.


	15. Day 4 (Part V): Charge!

**OKAY.**

**This had been very difficult to write, and so is the next chapter (which I'm not publishing yet).**

Disappointment may occur. TAT

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Here's Chapter 15!

* * *

**Chapter 15 – Day 4 (Part V): Charge!**

There were just a blurs and streaks of yellow and orange, and then sometimes, sparks from the clash of metal against metal would be glimpsed.

Where they met, gusts of wind would be felt from their direction.

"Not bad, Minato-chan."

"Not bad yourself, Naruto-nii."

They pushed against each other, Minato's three-pronged kunai gritting against Naruto's ordinary one.

Then they broke away, and landed on opposite sides of the clearing.

Both parties seem fine, but they're panting a bit now, suggesting how long they've been going at each other's necks (maybe not all too seriously though).

_I've scored some, I think._

True enough, Naruto had gashes on his cheeks and on his arm. His sleeves, meanwhile, had rips.

So, Minato managed to land hits on Naruto, but only non-major ones, since Naruto uses his arms to block or redirects attacks so as to not cause much damage.

Naruto, meanwhile, had not done as much as Minato had done.

Yet.

And Namikaze Minato knows that very well.

_But I have to make this quick. If we keep going for too long, I'm going to drain my stamina._

Stamina is supposed to be Naruto's forte.

Minato kept his stance in spite of this, eyeing Naruto's next move.

Naruto remained standing directly in front of him for a while, then feinted to the left, but nonetheless charged straight at him.

_An upfront attack?_

Minato prepared for it, and when Naruto came near, he used his shoulder to avoid his attack and flew into the air above him.

"Big mistake," he heard Naruto whisper as he went skyward.

_What?_

A big mistake it is.

Overhead, two of Naruto's kage bunshin came crashing toward him.

In each of their hands, there was a glowing sphere of blue chakra.

"Take this!"

Minato landed awkwardly just out of reach of the two kage bunshin, almost stumbling and rolling on the grass. He immediately straightened himself up and concentrated on the now dispersing chakra mass.

_Had I not used Shunshin at the last moment…_

In front of him, Naruto faced him, a kind of grin on his face.

The bunshins poofed out.

"How was it, to—Minato-chan?"

He narrowed his eyes at the obvious provocation, and went straight to his question, "Was that… the Rasengan?"

"Yeah! Do you like it?" Naruto asked, furnishing the kunai in front of him again.

"Just like the name implies: 'Spiralling Sphere'," he mused.

"Fits doesn't it? Whoever named it is a genius, you know," he smiled, as if proud.

"But now isn't the time to notice that-ttebayo!"

Minato braced himself.

* * *

"Whew, I'm glad Minato's okay…' Kushina sighed in relief.

"Tsunade, that is…" Jiraiya began in a questioning tone.

"Yes. The amazing jutsu he promised to me he'd master in a week."

"A week… and you said it is an A-rank jutsu in this time."

"Sorry to intrude, Ero-sennin, Tsunade-sama, but… that glowing sphere is an A-rank jutsu?" the red haired Uzumaki said with disbelief.

"Yes. A risky bet he took there, actually. But he did it, in a week."

"Besides, Kushina, that is not just any 'glowing sphere'. That's a mound of chakra continuously spinning about. Just from the shape it's compressed into, you'd be saying he trained a long time to maintain it. But no, he finished the jutsu in a week."

Kushina was astounded at what she'd heard, "An A-rank jutsu… and he's using it with a B-rank jutsu, the Kage Bunshin."

"You can't believe it, huh?' Tsunade asked, looking on at the battle that resumed just now.

"Hai. I hate to admit it though, since he's only been a goofball since we met him," Kushina chuckled.

"Then, would that mean he's in a class higher than chunin?' she wondered as she watched on too.

"Actually, that's the more surprising thing," the white-haired sage said, kind of cryptically.

"Eh? What do you mean, Ero-sennin?"

Tsunade let out a "Ha!", while Jiraiya grinned at the clueless girl.

"You see, he's just a genin."

* * *

"NAAANIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII?!"

"Kushina!" Minato called, alarmed but did not move from his position.

He has his back on them, so he really doesn't know what happened before she shrieked.

"A—No—nothing, Minato! I'll just… tell you later. Sorry for interrupting-ttebane! Hehe…"

"Don't remove your attention from me-ttebayo!" Naruto appeared below him, making rocks and dust fly where he had made a hole.

_!_

Minato backflipped to avoid Naruto's uppercut, and landed lithely on the grass a meter away from him.

"I'm not done yet!"

He turned around just in time to see Naruto direct another punch on him, and his arms rose to protect his head.

But instead, it hit him square on his stomach, right below his rib cage.

_Itte!_

He flew straight from the impact, and landed about 10 meters away, and skidded and rolled before finally coming to a stop, his back on them.

_Right on that spot too. It hurts… _Minato thought as he tried to stifle his coughs and normalize his breathing pattern.

_There's… blood._

* * *

"MINATO!"

Kushina couldn't believe it.

There were classmates back at the Academy who landed hits on Minato, but they were never direct ones, not because they didn't want to, but they just can't.

It's not within their ability.

But before she can take even a step from her position, Jiraiya appeared in front of her.

"Ero-sennin! Minato is—"

"—going to be fine," he calmly replied.

She did not believe it, but said no more. She looked where Minato was sprawled on the ground, seeing him coughing rather vehemently.

She could even imagine some amount of blood spewing into the grass where he faced.

But when she looked over to Tsunade, the woman never moved from her place. Sakura also stood her ground, but she could sense a surge in her to hurry over to Minato and examine how much damage was dealt.

"But still," Tsunade broke through Kushina's thoughts, "For Naruto to hit him right on the solar plexus…"

She could hear a speck of concern from her voice. It's either she isn't worried because it's going to be fine, or she's hiding it.

"Neh, Shishou, isn't that the area where a large clump of nerves are?"

"Yes, among the visceral organs of course. Judging from how he's breathing right now, his diaphragm must have gone into a spasm. Also, there's a major tenketsu there. Do you remember its name, Sakura?"

"Hai. It's the Gate of Limit."

_How could they be so calmly talking about this? Minato is—_

What filled the young Uzumaki heiress' sight and hearing is Minato's labored breathing, his frame shaking, his violent coughs.

She never had any doubts about Tsunade's eye on these kinds of things, but listening to them discussing the issue so peacefully invokes on a well of fury inside her.

"Correct. In Guy and Lee's Omote Renge, opening that gate will increase your speed and power. Using the Hyuuga clan's Juuken, attacking that gate would greatly impede chakra flow."

"Then, shishou, shouldn't we attend to him? I mean, he **is** coughing up blood, indication of airway damage, and his chakra flow might be disrupted…"

_That's right-ttebane! Listen to her, Tsunade—_

"It isn't like Naruto attacked him with chakra on the gate, like Juuken can. I would have gone over there faster than you can if it was so bad."

Kushina wanted to melt and sink to the ground, but she didn't. She had to stay strong. If Minato is going to go down, **again**, then she has to hold her ground.

"Are you sure, shishou?" Sakura asked, stealing a look at Kushina's worried face.

"Have I ever been wrong about these things?"

"Looks like he's regretting it now, Tsunade-sama," Kakashi pointed.

* * *

_I punched him… idiot!_

_"… and I must say that whatever move you make is at your own discretion. So use that according to what you think it right."_

That was the warning Tsunade gave out.

_Yeah, and I'm so wrong. WRONG-TTEBAYO!_

"—TO-CHAN!" Naruto screamed, and hurried over to him who was curled up in agony, obviously realizing that he got carried away to pack such power into a punch.

"STOP!"

Even through his suffering and his younger form, Minato's voice held so much authority over him that he just had to stop.

And he was only a few feet away from him too.

"I'm sorry. I went too far. Are you—" attempting to take another step towards him.

"I said, 'STOP'," Minato reasserted his command, as he tried to get up, with his back still on Naruto.

_He's having difficulty breathing. _he observed, seeing his young tou-chan take in uneven, ragged breaths as he eventually got himself on his hands and knees.

Naruto had kept his attacks on and on, relentlessly, and it must have been that that tired Minato so much from dodging that Naruto had an opportunity to land a clean hit.

But now that he had done it, he kind of looked back to the reasons why he had agreed to this 'spar' in the first place.

"Maybe we shouldn't have gone for this spar after—"

"No."

"No?"

"Naruto-nii, you need not regret it," now he managed to stand upright, although not straight up and with a hand on his knee for support, "We agreed to this, remember?"

"Yes, but—"

"No but's. This a no-holds-barred match after all," then he chuckled, in spite of almost clawing for breath earlier.

_Maybe…_

Maybe they **both** wanted this after all, deep in their hearts

_Wasn't it that way with Sasuke as well?_ the thought he had at the beginning of the match crossed his mind again.

The moment the Uchiha, after days of confinement in the Hospital, laid his eyes on him, they arranged a fight so quickly it may well be deemed as something reckless.

_It was reckless._

They went on and endangered not only their lives, but also Sakura's, who had nothing to do with it and only got caught up because she cared enough, for both of them, to attempt to stop their madness. Had Kakashi not come on time…

Minato straightened himself and turned to his opponent, and wiped the blood that streamed down from his mouth to his chin, in a manner reminiscent of a particularly stubborn boy the onlookers recognized… at least to the non-time-travellers.

"I told you he'd be fine," Jiraiya muttered to Kushina.

"Naruto-nii, how about we fight like we had not met before this day? Not like enemies but…"

"Academy rivals?"

"Right, Academy rivals. What do you say? That way we won't be striking each other then saying a solemn sorry."

"I'd still be saying sorry."

"Yeah, but won't it be better if we did it after the spar?"

"Fine," Naruto threw his hands in the air, but a small smile crept to his lips, "But I'll be careful this time."

"Sorry, but I don't like the sound of that," bending over to pick up his kunai which had flung from his hand earlier, "I guess I'll have to make you take me seriouly then."

Both resumed their stances, with renewed vigor in each of their eyes.

"I'd like to see you try, Minato-chan."

* * *

I bet you're going to kill me now for its lameness.

But tell me about it~

Reviews appreciated!


	16. Day 4 (Part VI): Ultimate Secrets!

**IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME!**

It can't be helped, university life sure is stressful.

AND MATHEMATICS IS BEING SUCH A GOOD FRIEND TO ME *ehem, irony, ehem*

And I have not watched Naruto for a long time so I don't have anywhere to extract feels. XD

And I'm participating in a RP. *sorry!*

.

So finally, after so long, here's Chapter 16!

* * *

**Chapter 16 – Day 4 (Part VI): Ultimate Secrets!**

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

"Let's do this guys!" each clone grouped in pairs and began forming the sphere Minato narrowly escaped from earlier.

Make that 20x now.

_!_

"Fuuton: Rasengan!"

_He's using his Nature Transformation!_

The clones successfully surrounded him and got him caught right in the middle of the tight circle.

_This is really bad. And from what I've read in scrolls, Wind-natured chakra, when controlled properly, cuts like knife on butter!_

He quickly calculated how he will be able to avoid every clone.

When one of them came close, he used the clone as a lever to throw himself up, then another, and another, until he was quite high up in the air.

The clones disappeared when they hit each other with the Rasengan.

Just when he was pretty sure there none left but the original…

_To the left!_

Launched by two of his clones, Naruto came flying toward him, another Rasengan in his hand.

_Can't dodge!_

He was in mid-air after all.

"Eh?" Naruto blinked, expressing astonishment that he had missed.

Minato had thrown back his head to shift his body a bit to at least get him out of the general path of the sphere, but as it passed, his navy blue hoodie (which Naruto bought for him) received tears, and his hair that flicked within the vicinity of the jutsu got cut.

_I have to act fast._

Right after he was certain that he was out of range of it while Naruto's body hung above him, he brought his right leg towards the yellow-haired Uzumaki's side, and completed the back flip.

That knocked Naruto towards the earth, blue chakra of the dispersing Rasengan whirling after him like an icy trail from a comet.

A blunt impact was heard, and a "Ggcckk, that hurt-ttebayo!"

Dust rose where he hit the ground.

He ended it with a graceful landing back on the grass.

* * *

"Yosh, Minato dattebane! Sugoi~"

"Your student Minato is ever so smooth," Tsunade commented, utterly impressed, while trying hard to refrain from adding, "On the other hand, his son and your next student Naruto is ever rough around the edges!"

Well, Namikaze Minato wasn't destined to take the titles 'Konoha no Kiiroi Senko' and 'Yondaime Hokage', and marry the beautiful pearl of the Uzumaki clan Uzumaki Kushina if he was just some shabby shinobi, right?

"Well, a good student has a good teacher," Jiraiya looked on proudly.

"Yeah? Well, Ero-sennin, YOU should be the one who learns from Minato then, because you are nowhere near a perfect example of a perfect sensei," Kushina made sure to rub that on his face, "I pray Minato won't indulge in the Shinobi Vices just like you do!"

Tsunade, Kakashi and Sakura nodded their heads solemnly.

"Wha—nevermind. Arguing with you never produced good results anyway."

"Good thing you know, Ero-sennin."

* * *

_It's no good... that was my first major blow in what... _Minato checked the sun for time, _2 to 3 hours?_

_But Naruto-nii sure is taking a good while to recover..._ he thought, squinting through the dust but seeing nothing.

Much to his surprise, what he was looking for came to him.

"Hi."

Eyes flanked by red orange markings and bearing yellow irises with black bar-like pupils suddenly appeared right in front of him.

_What..._

The sight completely immobilized him.

Then as if zooming out of a high quality picture, Naruto's face came in full view to Minato as the latter stepped away.

"So? You looked like you've seen a ghost."

Minato felt he'd stopped breathing the moment those strange eyes showed up in front of him like that, but now he knew it was Naruto, he could breathe easy again.

Maybe not so much, considering how he received a blow on the stomach and, because now he had larger problems than before.

"NARUTO!" came Tsunade's stern voice.

The teen turned his head to her, blinking at her agitation.

"Just what do you think you're doing?"

"Eh, Tsunade-baa-chan, 'no-holds-barred' right? It seems to—Minato-chan here's really eager to squeeze out all I had to show him, so here I am!"

Now that Minato got a good look at him, Naruto had similarities with a frog.

With whiskers.

_A frog with whiskers. With a black flame-adorned red coat, a shade or two darker than Kushina's hair..._

Naruto continued to defend himself from Tsunade's scoldings.

Minato re-evaluated himself and his reaction to this new form of Naruto's, and he realized it wasn't the appearance that got him stuck in place.

_First off, when he had his face right up in front of me, I wasn't afraid._

_I was nowhere near afraid._

_Like I was at peace._

Which is really weird, since anyone who had seen Naruto battle in Sage Mode must have dropped dead if he did what he had done to Minato a while ago.

But the young Namikaze doesn't know that.

_Second... I'm no sensor type, but there's something different about him..._

_Something changed, this is not the Naruto from earlier._

The peaceful feeling and the 'change' is the natural energy that Naruto wields which, apart from Jiraiya, they cannot see.

_This is really, really bad. I don't know anything about this. _he thought as he saw Naruto finish his argument with the Hokage.

Naruto laid his queer eyes on him again, "So, are you ready?"

"Hmm? What—Oh! Yes, yes."

The Uzumaki's brows creased in worry, "Are you alright? Maybe we should call this off?"

"Um... No. No," Minato shook his head.

"You sure?"

"Y—yes."

"Minato, he's no ordinary opponent, see? If you don't feel up for it, let's stop this match," Jiraiya said.

"No. We'll continue."

_I'm so distracted._

"Well then, we'll restart the match," Tsunade declared, "To opposite sides of the field, please."

They did as they were told, Naruto walking with an easy gait, and Minato with some difficulty.

Kushina noticed it of course.

"Minato…"

"In your places? Okay? Then, Ready, Get Set…"

"GO!"

Naruto went full speed, charging straight at Minato again.

"Tired yet?" and he swung his kunai at him.

Minato dodged down, but Naruto followed up with a kick from his left leg. Minato blocked it effectively.

_Perfect._

Now that Naruto has only his right foot on the ground, Minato swung his left leg towards Naruto's right knee, and unbalanced the yellow-haired Uzumaki.

"What!" shock evident on Naruto's face.

But as he fell down, it turns out to be…

_Kawarimi! Oh—_

The explosive tag hissed and went off with a bang, sending splinters of wood in different directions.

_Shunshin saved me yet again._

He decided it's time to retreat and rest for a while, and so took off into the Grounds' forest.

* * *

_I think I scared him... _Naruto thought as he looked around the field.

Then he stared at the spot where Minato had been just a while ago and the little crater made by the explosive tag he had attached on the log as kawarimi.

He could feel where his tou-chan is at the moment, thanks to Sage Mode.

Instead of pursuing him, he sat on the ground to gather natural energy.

* * *

"Looks like your student ran off, Jiraiya," Tsunade said, with a slight smirk on her face.

Jiraiya looked a bit offended, "He—"

"Minato did not run off-ttebane!" Kushina replied for the sage.

"Oh yeah? Tell me where he is right now then, cheeky girl!"

Sparks of electricity flew between them.

_Really, if these two begin a fight, I'm going to run for my life. _Jiraiya cringed at the thought.

Surely, Tsunade has strength.

No, scratch that.

Tsunade **is **strength.

But Kushina has shown some potential in that area as well.

He noticed that Sakura and Kakashi were thinking about the same thing, proven how they were inching away from the two ladies.

Then he looked back at the field.

_A perfect Sage Mode, huh... at a young age too. I did not get to see it clearly the other time, but it looks fantastic. If only I could take mine to perfection just as he had done._

_Everything Tsunade told me about this kid so far had all been true._

_The Yogen no Ko... the one to save the world or destroy it, like Ogama Sennin said._

_He's the one then?_

_Had I been wrong about Nagato and Minato?_

* * *

Naruto dispelled Sage Mode after 15 minutes of not moving.

_The weird feeling is gone._ Kushina noticed.

_I like it, yet I don't like it. It's absurd, all right, but that's how I feel it._

Being a Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, she had some access to this ability, although lower than the mastery of Uzumaki Mito.

"Ero-sennin."

"Hm?"

"What was that, just now? Why did Naruto-nii have eyes like that?"

She can't hide her uneasiness in her voice, thus allowing Jiraiya to pick it up.

"You can feel it, huh? The Kyuubi?"

She nodded.

"Well, to those unfamiliar to it, it may be a bit overwhelming. He controls natural energy in that mode, after all."

"Natural energy?"

"Yes. Describe how you felt."

"It's tranquil, yet a heavy aura," she slowly said, "It's light, pleasant, but there's some fury in it."

"Natural energy is just like that, just like what you said. Isn't that how nature is? It's your friend one moment, then it can be your worst enemy in the next."

Kushina took that in.

"That must be how that kid Minato felt as well. That's why he decided to back off for a while. But it's no use. He is no match for him at the moment. Not at his current level."

The Uzumaki heiress would have liked to argue with that, especially since Jiraiya doesn't always tell the truth, but this time she knew the reality of sage's words.

* * *

And Naruto was aware of that advantage.

_Now I'm stuck. What should I do? Will I give it my all? Or would I let him win?_

He brooded on it.

_But tou-chan won't take lightly to be underestimated, just like I do._

_So..._

* * *

_He disappeared!_

Minato crouched lower in his hiding place, and looked around the field.

_Where—_

"Right behind you, tou-chan."

_Tou-chan? What—_

With no time to think, he flew off.

Naruto was right behind him in no time.

_He's back to normal... why?_

But now that he isn't burden by that queer feeling, he can now fight freely.

They went at each other with such speed and power that the metal sparks where brighter than before.

"Why call me 'tou-chan', huh? Running out of breath?" Minato jeered, "You did it twice."

_Why on earth am I even provoking him?!_

He was obviously on the losing side after all.

"It's not 'tou-chan', it's 'Minato-chan'! Going deaf, I suppose?" Naruto pressed on his kunai against his.

They hacked and slashed at each other some more.

Their kunais felt hot with the friction.

"Give it your all-tttebayo!"

_I'm giving it all I've got! No regrets!_

Naruto dashed at him, kunai poised in front.

"It's over-ttebayo!"

In a millisecond, Minato slammed a black ball on the floor.

_This is the last... my chakra's close to zero..._

_Shunshin!_

"What?" Naruto squinted through the smoke.

"You lose, Naruto-nii," Minato said, his feet planted on Naruto's back through chakra, his pronged kunai centimeters from his jugular.

* * *

"Looks like it's finished, Tsunade-sama," Kakashi said, his left eye allowed to see.

The thick smoke was beginning to be blown away by the wind.

"I'll be calling for the winner then. Who is it, Kaka—"

"Wait!"

The smoke began to swirl toward the center, eventually revealing...

"Fuuton: Rasenshuriken."

Naruto had his left arm around Minato's neck, in his hand a kunai.

His right hand is high above his head, the Rasenshuriken whizzed, it's teeth humming like an oversized circular saw blade.

Both Jiraiya's and Kushina's alarms activated, "MINATO!"

"NARUTO, STOP!" Kakashi made to hurry to stop him, but Naruto merely looked at his sensei indifferently.

"Kakashi, stop," Tsunade held out her hand.

"Tsunade-sama! Why—"

"Look closely."

"Tsunade, this is—"

"Jiraiya, I said 'Look closely.'"

Kakashi and Jiraiya complied, but Kushina took a while, shaking in her place, before finally looking just like the Namekuji-hime ordered.

And they saw that Naruto's face had broken into a wide grin.

It wasn't the manical type of grin, but a proud one.

Minato does not show any sign of fear nor shock at all, as he stared up at the spinning mass at Naruto's right hand.

"Is that a close enough look?" they heard Naruto say.

Minato nodded, a smile forming on his lips.

"Naruto! Throw it now!" Tsunade commanded, "Your arm!"

Naruto threw the Rasenshuriken into the forest, and for a few hundred meters, it cut trees with ease, until it lost its energy.

"Sakura!"

"Hai!"

Both ladies hurried over to their charges and made them sit on the grass, Sakura taking care of the minor to slightly serious injuries, Tsunade on the more severe ones.

Kushina followed in no time at all, while Jiraiya and Kakashi took their time.

"Naruto, your arm's got some damage, but after a few minutes with the Shosen, it would be okay. Also, the Kyuubi will fix it for you right?"

Naruto grinned and nodded.

"But you Minato, you get to have yourself confined for half a day at the Hospital. That punch dealt more serious damage than you think, and it's a surprise you're not going under shock."

The young Namikaze smiled, warm and bright, and Tsunade couldn't help but find it similar to Naruto's, but his had a touch of Kushina's mischievousness.

She smiled at the thought.

_If only they knew..._

"There! See? I told you, Namikaze Minato! You'll get hurt again, and get yourself confined again-ttebane! But what? You two didn't listen to me dattebane!"

And Kushina went on and on and on, while Minato kept chuckling and insisting, "I'm perfectly fine—"

Then he fainted and fell flat on the ground.

Jiraiya facepalmed, Tsunade smiled crookedly and sighed, Naruto laughed, Kushina fussed all over him, and Sakura and Kakashi could only sweat drop.

Kakashi recalled how Naruto would pass out from using so many clones during his Nature Transformation training.

It's exactly how Kakashi saw his young sensei's collapse.

"Naruto," Kakashi spoke, "Why—"

"He wanted to take a look at a Fuuton technique I have as the prize for him winning," he grinned sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head.

"You intentionally lost?" Jiraiya asked.

"Well… haha. Yes."

Jiraiya could not comprehend this of course.

"Why—"

"Let me carry him, Tsunade-baa-chan," Naruto spoke, cutting out Jiraiya's question.

Naruto went and kneeled near Minato's body.

"Sure."

"Naruto, I'm not done healing your arm yet. Are you okay?" Sakura said.

"Sakura-chan, even if I weren't okay, I would still demand to carry him," he said, as he piggybacked the snoozing Minato with the help of Kakashi, "No matter how much you stop me."

And in that she understood.

"Let's go then? Minato-chan needs attention," he beckoned, a little laugh playing in his eyes.

"It's almost lunchtime, after all. I'm starving!"

The little Yondaime Hokage continued to sleep peacefully on his son's broad back.

* * *

**WELL HOW'S THAT?**

I know, I know, the battle's ending was lousy. Sorry.

By the way, I think updates will be really slow from now on. Sorry about that also. :(

.

REVIES APPRECIATED~

THEY MOTIVATE ME AS WELL, DON'T FORGET THAT!


	17. Day 4 (Part VII): Sugoi!

**Hi, it's me again!**

Ah, this is the last complete chapter I have typed so far, meaning it will be a long while again before I post a new one. TAT

**.**

Anyway, here's Chapter 17!

* * *

**Chapter 17 – Day 4 (Part VII): Sugoi!**

_Yes, I intentionally lost. Hahaha._ he thought, a wide smile on his face.

_But I couldn't believe I slipped two times, calling him tou-chan!_

Naruto wanted to kick himself in the face, if that was even possible.

_At least tou-chan saw how I've improved the technique he created… _he looked up at the sky and then to his child tou-chan's face, _How was it?_

"Naruto," Tsunade interrupted his thoughts.

"Baa-chan?"

They were currently jumping over the rooftops of Konoha. Below, they could see all the activity of an approaching Christmas day: people rushing from stall to stall, stores conducting sales and promos, parents buying gifts for their children.

Naruto looked down on them with a certain sadness.

"Jiraiya will be staying with the ANBU in the mean time. I'll explain to them the situation. Also, the preparations are going fine. They're going at the 25th, if all will proceed as planned," Tsunade said it carefully, and looked at him, gauging his reaction.

"Mmm."

_Right on the 25__th__ too._

Christmas day.

Behind them, Henge-Jiraiya followed suit while observing the present time Konoha, Sakura and Kushina chatted about all kinds of girl concerns.

Naruto picked up his pace and left them all in dust.

* * *

"Please lay him here."

The dozing kid didn't want to let go, his arms tight around Naruto's neck, but with some whispering that he's in the hospital and he's got to come off to let them check him, Naruto fnally got Minato off his back with the care of someone handling an unbelievably expensive ceramic vase.

Tsunade had returned to her office, Jiraiya with her, so Sakura informed the nurses what first aid treatment they had done, and what should be done next.

They set to work immediately.

Naruto and Kakashi stood by.

"Where's Ero-sennin?" Kushina approached the two.

"Tsunade-baa-chan said he'll be staying with the ANBU."

"Hmm."

"What's wrong?"

Kushina stared at her feet and shuffled about, her hands at her back.

"I… I'm hungry."

Kakashi smiled at her simple request.

Naruto blinked and said, "Oh, that's it? Okay! I'm hungry too, actually. Where would you like to eat?"

_I'm sure it's gonna be…_

Kushina's face brightened up, and she blushed as she said, "Ichiraku Ramen."

Naruto chuckled, "I thought so," then he turned to Kakashi, "Do you want to come with us, sensei?"

Kakashi pondered on it for a while, before saying, "Yes."

* * *

Naruto and Kakashi came into the shop, with them a girl with short, black hair.

"Irashaimase!" Ayama greeted the three as they took their seats along the counter.

Naruto sat at the far left side, the little girl next to him, then Kakashi.

"What will it be for today, Naruto, Kakashi? And for the little girl as well?" Teuchi graciously asked.

Naruto began, "Shio—"

"Shio ramen dattebane!" the girl who had just eagerly raised her hand clamped it on her mouth just as fast.

"Ha ha ha! Ojou-san, no need to be embarassed," Teuchi said, turning to start preparing the orders, Ayame nodding at her father's remark, "What will it be for you, Kakashi-san?"

"Vegetable ramen with eggplant wrapped in tofu, please."

"Coming right up!" Ayame announced.

Naruto and the little girl looked at each other and sighed.

Only to freeze the next moment at Teuchi's follow-up, "But I think I've heard 'dattebane' somewhere… where was it…"

"Neh, tou-chan, I'm sure it's from Naruto's 'dattebayo'," Ayame answered, scooping the noodles into the bowls.

"Ah, that's right! Naruto, how is the girl related to you?"

Both father and daughter missed seeing both Naruto and the girl experience cold sweat.

Naruto stuttered, "Ah… Ahahahahaha, we're—"

"Not related at all!" the girl continued for him.

"Y—yes, that's right-ttebayo! He he."

"Alright. A mission?"

"Yes!" both Naruto and the girl piped up.

"Oh, in that case I won't ask anymore."

The teen and the girl exhaled in relief.

"Neh, what are you giggling for, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto hissed.

"Nothing!" Kakashi replied, smiling innocently.

"Here it is!" Teuchi said, bringing the bowls of steaming hot ramen in front of their respective customers.

"Shio ramen for Naruto and jou-chan, vegetable ramen with eggplant wrapped in tofu for Kakashi-san! Enjoy your meal!" Ayame cheerily intrroduced the orders.

"Itadakimasu!" all three of them said.

* * *

"See, I told you doing Henge for Kushina-san was a good idea," Kakashi said, smiling, his hands in his pockets.

The throngs of people around them grew thicker and thicker as they pushed on back toward the Hospital.

"But we were almost discovered! Old Teuchi-san seem to recognize me… and it was hard… maintaining it. I'm not really good at this kind of jutsu," Kushina pouted as she murmured.

"Well, we had you do it because I knew Teuchi-san will recogni—" Kakashi slipped, and tried to point out other things, "And Naruto helped you right? And you covered up pretty nicely. Haha."

Naruto chuckled as he noticed this, and scratched the back of his head.

"Hm… Arigato ne, Naruto-nii."

"Oh right, I remembered, I have things to attend to. Bye-bye!"

And Kakashi disappeared in a poof without waiting for their replies.

_Was that an escape? _Naruto shrugged.

"Neh, ka—Kushina-chan, how about dango for dessert? There's a good place around here…"

* * *

"Please adjust it accordingly," Tsunade requested in a polite voice, watching both the head jutsu specialist in front of her and the large seal on the ground, surrounded by 5 other specialists, "Sorry for the sudden, inconvenient change."

She noted how this seal required shifts just like the Chikatsu Saisei no Jutsu.

"Hai, Tsunade-sama. It's not a big problem, really. Anything for Jiraiya-sama," the old man did a quick, respectful bow to the sage beside the Hokage, "Will there be any further changes?"

"I do not forsee any such changes, and I hope there will be nothing of that sort in the next few days," Tsunade replied, "I believe we don't have time to waste. What with the coming wa—nevermind. Thank you for the good work. We'll taking our leave."

"Not at all, Tsunade-sama, Jiraiya-sama. I wish you well."

"We as well," Jiraiya answered.

* * *

"What's 'coming' that you can't tell in front of me?" Jiraiya, back in Henge, caught up with Tsunade in the halls of the Hokage Tower.

"I would have told you if you needed to know. In fact, I've told you too much already. I've told you all, no, almost all about Naruto. Isn't that enough?" Tsunade said in a flat tone.

"Well," Jiraiya rubbed his chin, thinking of a way to get around her argument, "Then you could tell me more, since you revealed so much already. There's nothing to lose. Right?"

Tsunade stopped walking and heaved a sigh, "War."

"War?" Jiraiya, also stopping in his tracks, incredulously repeated the word.

"Yes. Didn't you hear me?"

"A war…" he repeated, "But… that's impossible… did I…"

She turned around to look at him, "No, it is not your fault. Nobody's fault. It's 'his' fault."

"'His'?"

"Enough. That's all you need to know," Tsunade replied coldly, turning around to walk again.

They reached her office in silence, and she went straight to her seat and slumped on it, looking very tired all of a sudden.

"The work's sapping your health, Tsunade," Jiraiya walked in front of her desk, and sat on the table with his back to her.

She laughed a little, "Ha! MY HEALTH? Who do you think you're talking to?"

He laughed as well, "Right, sorry for asking."

Silence.

Tsunade sighed, and called for the current ANBU Captain.

The captain appeared in a cloud of dust, and stood alert in front of the Hokage.

"Apparently, even Jiraiya got sent here, too. He'll be staying in your HQ, security: the same with Minato and Kushina," Tsunade ordered.

After the time that Minato ran away without warning, Tsunade had ANBU details placed for the two youngsters, in a way that the ANBU will be able to keep an eye on them with the little family neither noticing nor disrupting their day-to-day affairs.

Jiraiya protested, "What? Tsunade, I can take care of myself! Besides, they have no match for my skills."

Tsunade can't help but roll her eyes at his bragging, "I don't care. Just behave yourself until the time you three can return to your time plane. And don't even try running away. You know full well what may happen if time-space is disrupted…"

"Or if you anger me," she smiled with mock sweetness.

"O—Okay, okay. Fine."

"Dismissed."

* * *

"Minato~ We bought you some dango!"

Minato propped himself up on the hospital bed, received the package from Kushina, said, "Arigato," and popped a whole one in his mouth.

Then he muttered, "Tho I wod hab loked it bottor if it wor yor cooking." (Though I would have liked it better if it were your cooking.)

"Hah?" Kushina said, "Swallow your food first before you start speaking."

"You're one to talk, ka—Kushina-chan," Naruto smirked playfully.

"H—hey! I could say the same for you-ttebane!"

Minato swallowed the dango as directed, and lied, "I said nothing," with a smile on his face.

* * *

Naruto and Minato sighed in contentment while patting their stomachs.

"That was really great, ka—Kushina-chan. You cook unbelievably delicious meals!" Naruto remarked, "Eh, I seldom get to eat that kind of food…"

"I told you, right? It's the best!" Minato chimed in.

"Now you two are just pulling my leg," Kushina humbly said, "My cooking is nothing special."

Minato had been released after half a day, just like Tsunade said.

The little family had just finished a nice course of the Uzumaki heiress' cooking.

She gathered the dishes and Naruto helped, like always for a few days now.

"That's wrong! It's certainly the best I have ever tasted," Minato protested, while Naruto grinned and nodded.

Kushina gently blushed, "Well… Thank you then… I guess…"

"Neh, neh, Kushina!" Minato bounced on his seat, "Did you see that… that…"

"Rasenshuriken," Naruto offered.

"Yeah, yeah! The Rasenshuriken. It's awesome isn't it? That's a Nature Transformation technique. And the sphere too!"

"The Rasengan," Naruto offered again.

"Yes, that!"

"You mean," Kushina interuppted, without looking from the dishes she's already washing with Naruto beside her, "That that sphere actually was something? I had thought initially that it had nothing much to do…"

"What do you mean 'nothing much'? Kushina, that's probably the hardest technique I have ever seen!" Minato exclaimed, full of delight, "The shape shows it all, chakra rotated and compressed into a perfect sphere…"

He had trailed off dreamily.

Naruto chuckled at his father's wonder at his own invented technique. Or at least, this young Minato's, his young father's, future technique.

"Ero-sennin had mentioned it earlier," Kushina said quietly, "I thought it was just a 'glowing sphere', but he said it was what you just said it was… And that it was an A-rank jutsu. In this time at least. And to be using it with the B-rank jutsu Kage…"

"It's just amazing, isn't it, Kushina?" Minato asked, "And… and the other one. Naruto-nii, what's that called? That one when you had a dark red coat on?"

"Sage Mode," Naruto offered a third time.

"So that's Sage Mode! It's amazing, just amazing!" Minato looked absolutely mesmerized about the whole thing, "Although I was a little scared at first, appearing right in front of me like that."

She nodded, "Me too."

"Gomen ne," embarassedly scratching his whisker-marked cheek.

Their son's heart just melted in his chest, hearing these from his parents.

"About what I shrieked at earlier," the Habanero continued, "Is actually what's more astounding."

Minato tilted his head to the side, remembering.

"Hmm, ah yes. You said you'd tell me about it later. So what is it?"

Naruto also listened. He had no idea what it was either, being concentrated on the spar and all.

Kushina set down the plate she had been already wiping dry, because the shock from knowing it came back to her.

"Well… I just found out that while we are both Chuunin, Minato…"

Naruto already knew where this was going, and braced himself for both children's reactions.

"Naruto-nii is just a genin."

"Genin, huh… WAIT, GENIN?!" the young Namikaze double-taked, "Eh~ That makes you even more amazing, Naruto-nii!"

Obviously the reveal did not shock him, but only heightened his awe of Naruto.

"Ahehe," Naruto chuckled uneasily, "It's actually embarassing though… I'm the only one in my batch that has not advanced yet. They're all Chunin or better. Remember when I told you about Gaara from Sunagakure? After 2 years of my training and coming back here, I found out that he was already Kage."

"That's amazing too, but… Ah, still! You're more awesome than he is! Even if he became Kage in just 2 years! Although I want to be a Kage too…"

Kushina could only giggle at that.

Naruto ruffled Minato's hair, "I'm sure you will, to—Minato-chan. I'm sure you will."

* * *

And there you have it~

Really sorry if it will take a long, long time before I can post again.

Heck, I started this last December, and now December is only more or less 5 months away. *shame OTL*

.

**I want to know, do you think they're too OOC?**

**Or is it a manageable kind of OOC?**

Review appreciated, to keep me going on~


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